


The New Loop

by Fantasía (Ruby_Dragonryder), HeavenSent003, Niraphiezo or Naphiezo (Ruby_Dragonryder), Ruby_Dragonryder, TheInkedFantasy (Ruby_Dragonryder)



Series: The Rewritten Story AU [1]
Category: Bendy and the Ink Machine
Genre: Angel!Joey, Bendy and the Dark Revival (Eventually), Bendy and the Ink Machine Novel: Dreams Come to Life Spoilers, Bendy and the Ink Machine Official Novel: Dreams Come To Life, Bendy!Henry, F/M, Good Guy Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), I have sooooo much to explain with this story in time or you are all going to be so confused, I have way too much lore in this thing, Nice Joey, The & relationships mean friendship, The / relationships mean romance, Toon!Alice, Toon!Bendy - Freeform, Toon!Boris, boris and the dark survival - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-02-15
Updated: 2021-02-09
Packaged: 2021-02-27 19:46:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 10
Words: 50,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22671223
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruby_Dragonryder/pseuds/Fantas%C3%ADa, https://archiveofourown.org/users/HeavenSent003/pseuds/HeavenSent003, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruby_Dragonryder/pseuds/Niraphiezo%20or%20Naphiezo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruby_Dragonryder/pseuds/Ruby_Dragonryder, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ruby_Dragonryder/pseuds/TheInkedFantasy
Summary: Formerly namedThe Rewritten Story: A Good Bendyfell AUJoey has gotten bored and decided to change things up a bit to Henry's original dismay, but he slowly realizes that this might be good...Henry is slowly losing control over his abilities as the ink corrupts him further. What would happen if he were to be fully consumed by it...A small someone stumbled into an abandoned studio a long time ago and met the same sticky fate as the others. The only question is where is she now...Things are changing in Joey Drew Studios. The only question is whether it will be forbetter, or forworse?Explanation for the Title:The reason this is a Good-Bendyfell AU is that it's a sort of a dark Good Bendy AU. My friend came up with the name. There is NO UNDERTALE in this story. No SANSES. As to what it means... You'll have to read it to find out. Sorry, not sorry.
Relationships: Alice Angel & Bendy (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Allison Angel/Tom, Bendy & Boris (Bendy and the Ink Machine), Bendy & Henry Stein, Henry Stein/Linda Stein, Jack Fain & Shawn Flynn & Grant Cohen, Norman Polk & Henry Stein, Sammy Lawrence & Henry Stein, Sammy Lawrence & Norman Polk, Susie Campbell & Henry Stein, Susie Campbell & Joey Drew, Susie Campbell/Sammy Lawrence, Thomas Connor/Allison Pendle, Wally Franks & Buddy Lewek
Series: The Rewritten Story AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690837
Comments: 82
Kudos: 82





	1. The Change

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Ties to the Ink](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19797355) by [timecats](https://archiveofourown.org/users/timecats/pseuds/timecats). 
  * Inspired by [Ink Spots](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14121120) by [RiYuYami](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RiYuYami/pseuds/RiYuYami). 
  * Inspired by ['Through a Mirror, Darkly'](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11682462) by [Katastrophe94](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Katastrophe94/pseuds/Katastrophe94). 
  * Inspired by [Searching the Depths: The Heart of the Studio](https://archiveofourown.org/works/19637332) by [inkabelle_designs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/inkabelle_designs/pseuds/inkabelle_designs). 
  * Inspired by [The Art of Being Alive](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12429660) by [Star_Going_Supernova](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Star_Going_Supernova/pseuds/Star_Going_Supernova). 
  * Inspired by [Monochrome Madness](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15356403) by [InkSpottie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkSpottie/pseuds/InkSpottie). 
  * Inspired by [Inky Future](https://archiveofourown.org/works/14758553) by [Circus_Craze](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Circus_Craze/pseuds/Circus_Craze). 
  * Inspired by [Stop Me If You've Heard This One Before](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17088185) by [grumpyhedgehogs](https://archiveofourown.org/users/grumpyhedgehogs/pseuds/grumpyhedgehogs). 

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry is sick of the loop, but he's not the only one. What happens when Joey gets sick of it too?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! How are ya? I'm TheInkedFantasy in my BATIM stuff, though you can call me whatever you like as long as it’s not late for dinner. This is my first BATIM fanfic, so bear with me as it's kinda a mashup of all my theories and ideas and a few OC's. I got the inspiration and motivation to do this by reading other fics, and I'll put my favorites in the Inspired Section. 
> 
> Also, there is absolutely NO SWEARING HERE. And that's a GUARANTEE-SUE-ME-IF-YOU-SEE-SWEARING. So on with the story, I guess.
> 
> EDIT 5-18-20: I finally figured out how to get my art in here, but the two in this first chapter... I'm not particularly proud of. I don't love how I did Bendy's horns and I'm pretty sure that first one isn't canonically correct with the game and Henry probably could be better since it was my first time drawing a man sideways and the shading is probably terrible since my digital art software isn't the best, but hey, you work with what you got, right? I may end up redrawing these scenes in my sketchbook to my satisfaction but in the meantime, there they are! Enjoy!

Henry rushed behind the last tube as Bendy tried and failed to get the shards of glass out of his inky form. No, Henry corrected himself, this wasn’t Bendy. Not his Bendy, anyway. This was the monstrosity that Joey had created and sent Henry to dispatch. Joey had made Henry’s precious little Bendy into a murderer and then sent the father to get rid of his mess. Unfortunately for them both, Henry seemed unable to do such a thing as the world looped itself every time he tried. 

Henry was startled out of his thoughts as the beast screamed and charged into the last tube. The animator rolled out of the way just in time not to get showered in broken glass as Bendy crashed into the tube and shattered it, screaming from the pain. 

Seeing the entrance to the throne room was wide open, Henry rushed in and, regretfully, placed the _The End_ reel in the projector slot. He didn’t even turn around to watch Bendy’s agonizing death. Forever burned in his memory, he knew the terrified look on the ink demon’s face as he disappeared too well. Henry didn’t need to see it again. 

As he watched the room fade around him, Henry realized he was sick of this. Going through the same thing four hundred or so times was enough to drive anyone mad. Closing his eyes as the world ended again, he promised himself for what felt like the millionth time that he would make something change the next time around. He would save at least one lost soul.

He opened his eyes to find himself in Joey’s house again. Looking around and sighing, he stepped into the kitchen. There was no reason for him to delay this any longer. He already knew the layout by heart. However, he scowled at the storyboard on Joey’s desk as he passed it. The panels showed what happened to him and the other prisoners of the Ink Machine each time the world looped. It just showed how much control Joey really had over this little world, and Henry hated it. He hated being someone else’s plaything. 

As Henry entered the kitchen the same way he had every time he had done this before, Joey began to speak; “Henry? So soon? I wasn’t expecting you for another hour yet. Now you’re just trying to impress me.” Joey sighed. “But I know… I know… you have questions. You always do!” 

Henry scoffed silently. Sure he had questions, but he really just wanted to punch the self-righteous jerk in the nose. Imagining Joey’s nose breaking under the force of his fist made the animator smile internally. Man, did he want to do that! Too bad he was frozen in place, unable to speak, just like every single time he had gone through this before. If he could only move… 

He was startled out of his thoughts as Joey continued. “But the real question is this: Who are we, Henry? I thought I knew who I was… but… the success starved me. Nothing left but lines on a page.” Joey sighed and looked out the window before speaking again. “In the end, we followed two different roads of our own making. You, a lovely family… me… a crooked empire. And my road burned.” 

_In heckfire_ , Henry added mentally. _Your road burned in heckfire created by your own destructive nature and foolish desires for greatness._ He remembered what Joey’s recording on the demon path had said about how enough belief could even cheat death itself and scowled deeply in his mind. Was that what Joey had been trying to do? Cheat death? Restore his perfect health from before the accident that had given him that life-changing shatter in his leg? Well, whatever he had been trying to do, he had obviously failed, and Henry was proof of it. 

“I let our creations become my life,” Joey went on, finally turning around to face Henry, limping over to the counter with a sad look in his eyes. “The truth is, you were always so good at pushing, old friend… pushing me to do the right thing.” His gaze hardened as he stared Henry down. “You should have pushed a little harder.” 

Joey sighed again and leaned on the counter before continuing. “Henry… Come visit the old workshop… There’s something I want to show you…” 

He lifted his hand as if to gesture toward the door as he always did, but then stopped and replaced it on the counter as he began to laugh, startling Henry. He had never laughed before. What was going on? 

“You know what, Henry?” he asked with a devilish grin fit of Bendy himself. “I can see your misery. I've seen you breaking. Soon, you will be mine. All mine. So why don’t we change things up a little? Make things a little more… interesting. Let you see just how hopeless it is?

"You see, a while back, a small _someone_ stumbled into the studio. I’ve been hiding her as I didn’t want her to give you hope with that curiosity and ingenuity of her, which seem to be her two most defining traits, but during the last loop, she escaped while you were running about the studio. In order to regain my property, I have let loose a new... pet. She'll be your adversary from now on. I'll even release Bendy for you. It's not like I need him anymore with my dragon patrolling the studio. Perhaps you'll realize just how much you should despair when you are unable to save even your toon.

"Yes, that should make it entertaining,” he said, beginning to talk to himself. “Maybe things _will_ be different with her help. Maybe she’ll be able to succeed where you could not. Maybe she'll help me convince _him_ that this was all for the greater good.”

He chuckled. “That does, of course, raise the stakes significantly, Henry. That’s at least two more people for you to save, Henry, maybe more, if she does more than what I think she will. That girl was always too smart for her own good. You’ll probably run into more friends on your journey than usual. Might even get to keep them the entire way this time. Won’t that be fun, Henry Stein?” 

Henry wanted to shake his head violently and scream at Joey. Who was he to drag more innocents into his mess?! To ruin more lives for his own selfish gain?! But no matter how much Henry struggled, he couldn’t move, he couldn’t speak. He was trapped, unable to do anything but seethe silently in fury and frustration. 

Joey laughed as he watched Henry’s internal battle, enjoying it immensely. “I knew you’d want to resist. You always do, Henry. You were never one to just lie low and do as you’re told like a good little lamb. It was one of the things I liked about you. Until it caused you to leave the studio, that is. I never could find a way to replicate your work, unfortunately, but I made do with what I had.” He smirked as if sharing a private joke that Henry didn’t get. “But in the end, it wasn’t enough to keep him happy, to keep the misery and despair away. At least I was able to find a way to keep it going, even if it was like this. If I’m being honest, this world you’re apart of, it’s my masterpiece, the pinnacle of my career. I’m glad you gotta see it before it consumes you too.” 

Henry wanted to frown to show his confusion. What did he mean, _consumes_ _you too_? Was there something else going on that he wasn’t aware of? He wished that he could ask Joey and get real answers instead of the frustrating questions he was always left with. 

“Once you finally break, you will be mine, and then he will be happy again. For now, though,” Joey began, “I think it’s best you don’t remember this. That would take the fun out of it, don’t you think?” 

Henry struggled to move, to scream, to run, to do _anything_ to get away as Joey approached him, reaching his hand out to touch him, but found he was still frozen, trapped and at Joey’s mercy. 

Just before Joey touched him, he said, “Oh, and one more thing: only the colored ones can be trusted. You’ll want to remember that.” He grinned in a predatory way, scaring Henry even more as ink began dripping down the man's face while his clothes shifted to an orange suit. “Good night, Henry. Sweet dreams. Things are about to change.” 

And before Henry could even wonder whether the change would be for better or for worse, Joey’s fingers brushed his forehead, and everything went black. 

# ⋯

When Henry woke up, it was to him leaning against the door that served as the entrance to Joey Drew Studios. He rubbed his head as he stretched, not remembering the loop starting over. He shrugged. It wasn’t the first time this had happened, and it probably wouldn’t be the last. 

He stood up and looked around before saying for what felt like the millionth time, “All right, let’s see if I can find what you wanted me to see.” 

He was about to take a step forward when he felt something different. He looked around to see if he could see what was setting him off. He couldn’t tell if it was that the shadows were a little less sinister, or if the posters looked a little more vibrant, or the animations looked a little more alive, but something was there, something _good_ , and, for the first time in years, a spark of hope lit itself in his soul. Maybe this time would be different. Maybe this time would be better. 

_Maybe_ this time it would finally end. 

A new sense of determination guiding his actions, he strode into the studio to be startled by the word **Heck** written in ink over the word Studios, making the business sign read **Joey Drew Heck**. He stared at it. Had that always been there? He went to pull out the looking glass to see if there was a secret message but found that he didn’t have it. He sighed. Typical. Joey must have taken it again for him to _earn_ , in Joey’s words. He’d just have to get it later. 

He then turned into a corridor he knew from long before his being trapped here and walked to his old desk. “I wasted so much time in this chair,” he muttered, brushing his fingers over his original Bendy design. The one that they actually used might not have been truly his, but that little grinning demon was still a piece of him just as much as Boris or Alice Angel. That was the way with creators, after all. 

He eyed the ink and paper fondly, remembering the hours he had spent drawing Bendy and Alice and Boris. He knew all too well that he had all the time in the world before he had to turn on the machine. The curiosity that had fueled his original quick run on the first loop had faded away long ago. He was in no rush to turn the machine on again. Maybe he could spend an hour or two reliving the past. Not like anyone else would notice.

And so Henry sat down in the old chair, picked up the pen, dipped it in the ink, and began to draw. He started by drawing Bendy, Alice, and Boris as usual, but as he lost himself in the soothingly endless strokes he began branching out to other things, mostly the other prisoners of the studio, but a few were his family and creations. Sammy, Susie, Norman, Buddy, Jack, Shawn, Wally, Allison, Linda, Thomas, Bendy, Alice, and Boris found their way onto the paper, but not as they were, but as they should be. Henry droned on, sketching scene after scene of his friends playing together, being themselves again. You could even spot Joey in a few of them, smiling as Henry’s little girl Julia talked to her _Uncle Joey_. The feared torturer looked like he was actually happy with his adopted niece in his lap, nothing like the predatory man he had become. In fact, everyone looked happy. And why wouldn’t they? They were _free_ , playing on the surface happily. 

Lost in his creative daze, Henry didn’t notice the atmosphere lighten around him or the drawings beginning to move after he finished them, the people in them watching him draw others with interest, and he _definitely_ didn’t feel his eyes changing from green and black on white to gold and white on black as he laid the inky lines on the paper. Anyone else in the studio would tell you that such a change was bad, but it seemed to strengthen Henry, heightening his resolve to keep going, to see his friends happy, even if it was only on paper. It was closer to freedom than they had ever been before. 

About an hour and hundreds of drawings later, Henry finally ran out of paper, shocking him out of his stupor and reverting his eyes to their normal color. He leaned back in the chair, stretching, and sighed contentedly. He had really needed that. _Maybe I should draw more often,_ he thought. _It’s a pretty good stress reliever._ He looked over his work happily, which had frozen in place once more after realizing he was done. But then he got up from the chair, done for now. He was just stalling now. Time to move on.

Exploring the studio further and making his way to the ink machine room, he was surprised to find a new message on the wall outside the ink machine room: 

**_Only the colored ones can be trusted._ **

He looked it over, wondering what it could mean. Who were the colored ones? The only ones who had color in this world were himself and Joey, should the old coot ever decide to come into the machine in the first place. Also, why was this here to begin with? Who wrote it? He looked down at the floor below it to find footprints that, judging by the size, belonged to a woman. Had Allison written this? He shook his head. He’d have to figure that out later. 

After raising the ink machine, a sight he would never get tired of no matter how evil the machine actually was, he left the room to find the pedestal room and give himself the task of finding the items to start the machine. Once he reached the room, he jumped when he found another message on the floor: 

**_Are you really sure you want to do this?_ **

He shook his head and muttered, “Heck, no. Of course, I don’t want to do this, but I don’t have a choice. If I don’t do this, I can’t change anything.” He stepped forward and nearly yelped as the message changed in front of his eyes.

**_Is that so? Why is that? I’m honestly curious._ **

He stared at the ink on the floor. “What the heck… No. I am _not_ doing this today! I am _not_ going to start talking to floors! I’m not insane!” 

**_You’re talking to me right now! And who are you calling a floor?! I’m a living toon, thank you very much!_ **

“I already said I’m not going to talk to you, so good day!” 

He stomped out of the room fast enough that he didn’t notice the ink on the floor take the form of a laughing black fox before disappearing into the floorboards.

Huffing as he left the room, he didn’t even flinch when he noticed the Bendy cutout in the middle of the hallway, though he was intrigued by the fact that a girly giggle followed the discovert. What the heck was going on here?! 

“Allison!” he called. “If this is your idea of a joke, I’m not amused!” 

No one answered, although he still got the strange feeling someone was watching him. After looking around to find that no one was there, he sighed and continued on. It was just his nerves talking, that’s all, he told himself. Right?

He was especially surprised to walk into Joey’s office looking for the wrench for the ritual only to find that the Boris clone’s body wasn’t on the operating table. The straps were slashed open and a coffin with extravagant designs involving music notes carved into its light wood leaned against the wall with a message engraved in the wood:

**_Boris Wolf_ **

**_A True Friend_ **

**_Rest In Peace_ **

**_May Your Music Play On Forever_ **

On the bottom right corner of the coffin’s lid, the message, _“I hope you are in a better place, my friend. Don’t worry. We’ll make him pay for what he’s done to you. To all of us,”_ was written in ink. 

Henry supposed it was someone’s last goodbye. He decided to leave the coffin alone. There was no reason to open the coffin. He had seen the dead Boris enough times. Instead, he grabbed the wrench that had been left on the operating table and placed a single hand on the wooden lid of the coffin as a final farewell before grabbing what he needed and leaving. He had shed enough tears for the lost wolf in the past loops. This Boris wasn’t coming back, and he needed to accept that. 

He walked through the hallways into the break room. He was about to start a round of darts when he found another new message on the wall above a shelf with a recording on it, reading: 

**_Are we truly the monsters?_ **

That one actually got an eyebrow tweak out of Henry. Someone was _definitely_ playing with him, and he didn’t think it was Joey. Not this time.

He looked at a nearby shelf to find a recording that he had never seen before. It had no name or label unlike the others but looked promising all the same. He started it to find that it was the voice of a little girl:

**_"Hello! I don’t know if anyone is actually going to listen to this, but the guys said it was a good idea to talk to these machines so that others know what happened here, so I’m going to do that!_ **

**_"Anyway, it’s been almost a week since I snuck in here and began hanging out with the magic ones. They even drew for me like Mother said they would! They’re all so nice! But they said that Uncle Drew was mean and that I should hide from him, which I don’t understand. When he found me playing with the others, he was so nice! He even said that I could stay! Isn’t that wonderful?_ **

**_"He now is telling me that he wants to show me something. He says that it will let me play with the others even more so that I don’t have to leave! The others don’t want me to go with him. They say he’s bad. I don’t get why they’re so worried. Joey is nice! He even lets me call him Uncle Joey! A bad guy wouldn’t do that. I should know. Even though I’m only ten, I’ve met some bad guys._ **

**_"After thinking about it, I’ve decided that I’ll see what he wants to show me. Mostly to prove Ben wrong about Uncle Joey, but also because I’m actually curious what it could be._ **

**_"Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? No one as nice as Uncle Joey could be evil…"_ **

**_…_ **

**_"Right?"_ **

As the tape clicked off, signaling its end, Henry stared in horror at it. That had been a little kid! That was even worse than everything else Joey had done! If he was reading between the lines correctly, she had become a toon at his hand, and the others in the studio had tried and failed to save her. Oh, when he got his hands on Joey… He looked around as if searching for some sign of her continued existence nearby. The real question for him was where was she now? And what had she become? He desperately hoped that she hadn’t turned into a searcher or a Lost One. He didn’t want to kill her by accident while trying to defend himself. The poor kid didn’t deserve that.

After getting the rest of the ritual items in a daze and returning them to the breaker room, he set off to find the theater and restore the ink pressure so he could finally turn on the machine. Warning bells went off in his head as he saw the locked door in the little theater that _definitely_ hadn’t been there before. Henry thought he would remember a door with giant claw marks that were a little too large to be Ink Bendy’s claws all over it. He had a feeling that Bendy or someone else important didn’t like this door, which meant whatever was behind it was either important or really, really BAD. This prediction was only cemented when he glimpsed the message behind the projected dancing Bendy on the wall. He turned off the projector and froze, the message chilling him down to the bone, a sense of dread filling his heart as he read the black letters: 

**_For any who read this warning, you must know that the Ink lives and is using its slaves to claim the innocent who enter here and drag them to their doom before twisting them into monsters and demons and fallen angels. Whatever you do, do_** **not** **_allow yourself to fall to the same fate._ **

**_Beware the Inked prince. Hide, and pray he does not find you. Then find an exit as soon as you can and get out. There is no saving us._ **

**_For we’re still living his nightmare._ **

**_\- Mirage Foxen_ **

Henry stared at the signature at the bottom as he processed the words he had just read. The ink was _alive_ , it said, and it was taking those that came here and turning them into the toons that were then trapped in the walls of the studio. What that meant made Henry shudder. What the heck had Joey been working on?! 

He sighed and shook his head before turning the projector back on, flipping the switch to the pump control and leaving the room. He’d have to look at it later. In the meantime, he had work to do.

As he made his way back to the Ink Machine in a daze, he stopped outside a locked door. There were voices coming from the other side. 

Someone… was _sobbing_. 

“It’s okay,” said a soothing voice that reminded Henry of the girl from the recording. “It’s all right. Just calm down. I’m right here.” 

_“I don’t want to stay like this,”_ replied a second voice through his tears. _“I hate this. I want to go back. I want to see the sun again. I want Boris not to be afraid of me. I just… I want this to be over.”_

Henry started when he heard the second voice. That sounded like… Bendy! Bendy from the cartoons, though the voice was a little distorted! Bendy, who Henry didn't know could even talk before now, was talking to someone whose voice he didn’t recognize. But who could it be? Henry thought he knew everyone in this place, but apparently he was wrong.

“I know, Bendy. Believe me, I know. We all want it to be over. But you can’t lose hope yet. You have to keep going. We’ll find a way to fix this,” replied the first voice, a female, but not Susie or Allison. _Perhaps one of the Lost Ones?_ Henry guessed. “Maybe we won’t be able to be exactly who we used to be. Maybe we can’t go back to being human. But we will still find a way out of here. I promise, Bendy. I’ve never lied to you before. Why would I start now?” 

Bendy sniffled before answering, _“Y-you’re right… We’ll get out… Someday…”_

“That’s the spirit! Now, show me that winning smile of yours!” 

Henry accidentally knocked something over and the voices stopped for a moment before surfacing again. When it returned, Bendy’s voice had a severe tone of alarm as he lowered his voice. _“Someone’s here!”_

“You know the drill. Stay out of sight and don’t let them see you. I’ll let everyone else know.” 

And then the voices disappeared, and they didn’t come back during the fifteen minutes Henry waited. He doubted that they would come back. Not while he was there, anyway. Time to move on. 

But why did he feel like he was being watched again?

After looking around the first floor for about a half-hour for anything else that was new and, finding nothing but a note on his desk next to his drawings that stated, _You draw beautifully_ , Henry eventually made his way to the ink machine room, preparing himself for the chase. 

He jumped back when Bendy threw himself at him as always—no amount of experience could prepare you for that—and was about to turn to run when he noticed something off about Bendy. Henry slowed as he studied the demon. 

The most obvious change was his signature devilish smile which was closer to a frown. His horns, which were usually perked up, were flopped to either side of his head like a sad dog. The abnormally large gloved hand reached for him pleadingly, a drastic change from the violent clawing at the air Henry had come to know, and Henry could have sworn that Bendy looked thinner than usual. But above all else, the most alarming change was the ink on his face. Most of it was no different than usual, but there were two trails that dripped down his cheeks around his frown. 

Bendy… was _crying_. 

Henry stepped closer to the boarded-up entrance despite the sounds of pipes bursting behind him, allowing Bendy to touch his creator. 

_“Please…”_ pleaded a voice so soft, Henry would have thought he was hearing things had he not realized who it was. _“D-don’t run… I won’t hurt you! I promise… Just please don’t run… I don’t want to be alone again…”_

Henry stared at Bendy. The demon he had come to fear looked so scared now, like a kid who was lost in a big city, completely helpless. 

“Okay,” Henry agreed, placing a hand on the demon’s cheek. “I won’t run.”

 _“You promise?”_ Bendy asked, clutching the animator’s hand on his face fearfully as if afraid it might disappear at any moment. 

“I promise,” Henry agreed, a soft smile on his face. 

_“Thank you… Oh, thank you…”_ the demon sobbed, clutching Henry’s hand like it was a gift from heaven. _“Th-thank you…”_

__

“But,” Henry began carefully, not wanting to offend the demon, “how are you alone? I heard you talking to a girl earlier.” 

_“She never stays for long,”_ Bendy explained, _“and she didn’t visit me often where I was. She only came because someone turned on the machine. Was it… Was it you?”_

Henry nodded. “It was the only way. I had to keep going so that I can find a way out of here, and a way to save all of you guys. Including you, my devil darling.”

Bendy smiled weakly at his creator, finding comfort in his words. That had been all he wanted to hear, that his creator remembered him. Of course, he’d have to break it to him that he had no soul and therefore couldn’t be saved in the way that Henry probably wanted him to be eventually, but for now, he was just happy to have Henry there. 

Then Henry’s eyes widened and Bendy turned around to find a gigantic form behind him. Almost the same size as the ink machine and looking like some sort of snake with four legs and a pair of demon wings, it snapped its gigantic jaws at him, lunging forward to do so. 

“DUCK!!” Henry cried as he rolled out of the way of the doorway himself. 

Bendy narrowly dodged the beast’s mouth as it slammed into the boards nailed across the entrance to the room, turning the sturdy wood into splinters. 

Henry got to his feet and saw Bendy frozen in fear. Acting out of instinct, he grabbed Bendy’s hand and began running, pulling Bendy along. “RUN!” he shouted, startling Bendy out of his stupor as they went along back toward the entrance of the studio. 

_“Stop!”_ Bendy protested, trying to pull out of Henry’s grip. _“It won’t work! I can’t leave! The ink won’t let me! Stop!!”_

“That’s not why I’m running toward the exit,” Henry huffed, avoiding the falling pieces of the studio as he rushed to the spot he knew would allow them to escape the monster chasing them. 

Right before they reached the door, the floor came out from underneath Henry and his new companion, plunging them into the darkness just as the beast was about to get them. Bendy cried out in fear, not knowing what was going to happen to them, and Henry, realizing he didn’t know if Bendy could survive a fall from this height, maneuvered their bodies in free fall so that he would be on the bottom when they finally hit the floor. Bendy noticed his creator’s actions and protested them loudly, trying and failing to change the outcome by wriggling out of Henry’s grip, but he wasn’t fast enough. 

They hit the floor seconds after, knocking the wind out of the old man and making his sight black out for a second or two. When he opened his eyes again, it was to the face of a _very_ worried ink demon. 

Henry chuckled. “I’m fine, Bendy,” he said as he sat up and rubbed the back of his head. “I’m just winded and a little sore. That’s all.”

Bendy’s cheeks grew dark as he backed up. _“But I d-didn’t say anything!”_ he stammered. _“How’d you know what I was—”_

“Thinking?” Henry finished the demon’s sentence for him with a weak smile. “It was your expression. It told me everything I needed to know.” 

_“My… expression?”_ Bendy asked, confused. _“I… don’t have… expressions? Joey never had them use expressions for me in the animations…”_

That made Henry laugh. “No, he didn’t, did he? Well then, call it a creator’s intuition if you like. I know you, Bendy. You can’t hide yourself from me.” He stood up and brushed himself off, cursing his aching bones. He was getting too old for this. After checking for any major injuries on the two of them and finding none, Henry grabbed the ax on the shelf and ignored the recording. By this point, he had practically memorized Tom’s words. Same with every other recording except for the girl’s, which was why he had skipped Wally’s recording on the first floor too. He instead went over to the blocked doorway and began hacking at boards to clear a path for him and Bendy. After no less than ten feet into the corridor, Henry heard Bendy cry out. 

“What’s wrong?” Henry asked as he turned around. 

_“I don’t think my current form was made for this,”_ Bendy said as he backed up to try and get his foot free of the boards it was stuck behind. _“Curse my deformed body!”_

Henry shook his head with a chuckle before using the ax to get the demon unstuck, wishing he could do more to help the demon toon. “There you go buddy,” he said with a smile. 

_“Thanks,”_ Bendy said with a grateful smile. _“We should probably keep moving though so that that_ **_thing_ ** _doesn’t catch up to us.”_

“Oh, don’t worry,” Henry replied as he pressed on. “I don’t think it’ll show up for a while now. We have bigger fish to fry right now.” 

Henry didn’t even notice the pentagram in his path until after Bendy cried out, _“Wait!”_

Too late. Henry’s vision began to shake as he collapsed on the floor before a series of images flashed before his eyes: the Ink Machine, Bendy, Joey’s wheelchair, a black and white fox with blue pie-cut eyes, the monster (although it looked more fully formed), his youngest daughter Julia Stein covered in ink, and the throne room full of cages suspended above the throne. 

And then everything went black. 

Again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? What did you think? I did a few drawings that took HOURS to do but I couldn't figure out how to properly put them in here, so if someone can explain that to me that would be great. 
> 
> Also, the fox is very important later in the story. Keep an eye out for her. 
> 
> And I just love the idea of Bendy trying to reach Henry, his creator, for comfort every time that Henry showed up and then Henry running away cuz he was scared which made Bendy bitter because he thought that maybe his creator would be different from the others, but no, he _hates_ Bendy just like everyone else and that's why Bendy hates Henry in the end. But if Henry finally understood Bendy, that means that Henry must have had something happen to him for him to understand the demon, right? Maybe the drawing incident has something to do with it... 
> 
> Stay tuned! 
> 
> \- TIF


	2. Can I Get An Amen?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a bond between creator and creation is forged, and new questions arise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't really feel like doing all of the monotonous Chapter 2 craziness this time so I decided that we'd have feels instead. I hope you guys don't mind! ^^) All that stuff will be next time!
> 
> Enjoy!
> 
> _\- TIF_

Bendy paced worriedly on one side of the pentagram, trying to figure out what to do. Henry had collapsed unconscious in the inked circle on the floor after stepping into it, and Bendy knew full well what happened to people who stayed in lit pentagrams too long. He couldn’t allow the ink to take Henry. He just couldn’t! He had already lost every single person he considered his friend to the corrupting liquid—Norman, who hadn’t run screaming the second he saw the demon and instead comforted him and treated him like a real person; Wally, who sat and talked to Bendy in his free time when no one else would even get near him; even Thomas, who, after his original horrified reaction, eventually grew to like Bendy a little bit, at least, enough to bring him things from the outside—everyone! He couldn’t lose his creator to the studio too! He had to do _something_ to save Henry from this terrible fate! 

Noticing that Henry’s left hand was just outside the pentagram, Bendy dashed to the other side and carefully grabbed the animator’s hand and began dragging him out of the ring of candles. The toon didn’t dare cross into the cursed circle for fear of being trapped in it as he once was in a similar one by Joey long ago while he tore the heart out of a Boris toon, Bendy’s only true friend at the time. He would never forget that.

After getting his creator clear of the pentagram, Bendy looked around at his surroundings for the first time. A couple of coffins, a shelving unit, and a few chairs dotted the room along with a poster for _The Dancing Demon_. Bendy grimaced inwardly at it, as he couldn’t change his facial expression very easily. Whoever thought it was a good idea to put him in a tutu was crazy. He sure hoped that it wasn’t Henry. He wouldn’t be _that_ cruel to him, his beloved creation… right? 

Bendy wasn’t sure anymore. After Joey, the one who had claimed he loved Bendy the most, had abused him and treated him like a freak because of his supposed lack of a soul (which had never seemed to bother Bendy—why had Joey needed to make such a big deal out of it if Bendy could do everything everyone else could without it?), he had learned not to assume anything about anyone, especially someone who supposedly cared about him. If Joey had taught him anything, it was that people could be deceiving. Despite Joey’s statements that Bendy wasn’t smart enough to think for himself or know what was going on, Bendy had noticed that whenever Joey said that he cared for him or was doing things for Bendy’s own good, the compassion never quite reached his eyes. His cold, bottomless, dark eyes that gave Bendy chills whenever the man focused that horrid gaze on him, a gaze that made him feel like he wasn’t good enough for anything and definitely not good enough for Joey. He hated those eyes with their condescending gaze. They were nothing like Henry’s. They were nothing like his kind creator’s eyes.

Sure, Henry had originally started to run, his eyes full of fear and distrust, but he had stopped and turned back to Bendy afterward, his eyes full of curiosity and compassion. When Henry had promised that he wouldn’t run, he had smiled, and the smile had spread to his eyes, unlike Joey’s. Henry’s gaze had made Bendy feel safe and like… the demon couldn’t put words to the feeling, but he had loved it. When Henry looked at him, he felt special, _perfect_ even. He liked Henry. It had been those kind but tired green eyes that had reminded Bendy of the days when Henry had spent hours carefully drawing him for the animations, that made him recognize his creator. Yes, this man was nothing like Joey. This man actually cared about him, and he had the past half an hour or so to prove it should he had had any doubt, not that he did. This was Henry, his creator, the one who had put more of his heart and soul into him than anyone else in existence. Bendy was just sorry that Joey had made him forget him to begin with.

Noting that the room was safe to rest in with the fact that the door moving forward was already barred and the way they had come had collapsed behind them, Bendy then moved on to the animator himself, needing to know the welfare of his creator. Henry didn’t look too hurt from the fall, with only a few bruises, but Bendy noticed that Henry was shivering, most likely from a nightmare as Henry was curling in on himself, wrapping his arms around his torso and grimacing, the old man’s breathing quickening in fear. Not sure quite what to do in this situation, Bendy got down next to Henry and went to touch him. He momentarily pulled back when Henry flinched, but kept going when he saw that Henry seemed to be relaxing with him near. In fact, Henry’s breathing stabilized when Bendy rested his hand on the animator’s side, a small smile crossing his face in his sleep, which made Bendy smile genuinely in turn. 

He froze, going over that thought again in his mind. He had _smiled_ , really, truly _smiled_ … When was the last time he had truly smiled because he was happy?! He honestly couldn’t remember the last time he had even _been_ happy, let alone let someone else know he was happy by smiling. He realized he liked the feeling and didn’t want it to go away. If Henry had set it off once, maybe he could do it again, Bendy mused and found that he had one more reason to stay close to Henry, to protect the old animator to the best of his abilities. After all, isn’t it instinct to draw closer to the things that make you happy, to protect them and keep them safe from harm?

After looking around the room once more and then debating his options, Bendy finally decided to lay down next to his creator and rest while staying close to Henry. He knew this was a risky choice as it meant things could sneak up on them and attack them in their sleep, but Bendy had to admit that he was tired, _exhausted_ , even. He hadn’t been ready to be chased by some demonic creature after being finally reunited with his creator after all these years of being alone, and the adrenalin had faded away to leave a terrible exhaustion in its place. Bendy didn’t think he had the strength to fight anything to defend Henry at this point, and that just wouldn’t do in his opinion. It was safe here, and he wasn’t sure when the next safe spot for them to rest would be. It was better if he took the chance to rest while he could. Besides, his presence seemed to be the only thing keeping Henry calm, which made Bendy’s heart flutter in delight as he realized it meant that Henry _trusted_ him to some degree, that the old animator _liked_ having him close by despite his monstrous look. 

His creator _loved_ him.

Laying down next to Henry so that the animator faced him and placing an arm around the unconscious animator, Bendy spoke for the first time since Henry had collapsed in the circle: 

_“Thank you, Henry,”_ the ink demon whispered, knowing that the animator couldn’t hear him. _“Thank you for coming back here despite everything that had happened. Thank you for giving me a chance despite my looks. Thank you for not running when you got the chance. Thank you for going back for me instead of leaving me there for the beast to devour. Thank you for helping me when I had gotten my leg stuck in the hallway. Thank you for loving a monster, F-Father. I…”_ He hesitated, trying to find the right words to say. His heart had been tainted by Joey’s treatment of him, filling it with hate, but now he felt something else, something he didn’t quite have a name for. The way that Joey used the words that people said to show they cared made them empty and worthless to the demon, but what Bendy said next had his whole soulless heart and every positive memory of his creator behind it: 

_“I… I love you, Henry.”_

And after sharing those final words, Bendy closed his ink-covered eyes and let himself drift off into a peaceful sleep devoid of nightmares, his creator’s love filling his dreams and letting him rest well for the first time in decades.

Unbeknownst to Bendy, Henry momentarily opened his eyes after the demon had fallen asleep, not quite awake but not quite asleep, in a state of dreamful awareness. His half-open black and gold eyes looking over the sleeping toon with a smile, Henry _had_ heard Bendy’s words through his dreams and consequently held them close to his heart, a memory he would treasure forever. Pulling the demon closer to him and wrapping his arms around the toon’s sleeping form, Henry whispered a loving sentiment of his own: 

“I love you, too, Bendy, my precious little devil darling.”

Bendy smiled in his sleep at the words, cuddling closer to Henry’s chest, which made Henry smile.

Then the old animator let himself fall asleep again, this time with his cherished demon in his arms, unaware of what exactly he had done to his beloved creation with those words, not that it mattered. He’d find out soon enough when they woke up. In the meantime, the bond between creator and creation, between _father and son_ , had just been cemented between the two people from worlds apart, bringing them that much closer together. The only question left was what it would cause them to do for each other in the future. After all, family will do anything for each other… 

Even risk _death_ itself… 

# ⋯

When Henry finally woke up a few hours later, he saw Bendy cuddled close to his chest and smiled. He didn’t know when exactly this had happened, but he wasn’t protesting. It was a welcome change from Bendy chasing him and trying to kill him every ten minutes. Besides, he liked having Bendy this close to him. He couldn’t voice exactly why that was, but he did. It was nice.

He went to move only to find that Bendy was laying on his left arm. Looking the scene over more carefully, Henry saw that he was hugging Bendy close to him. He chuckled, wondering how Bendy had gotten himself into this position, not that it really mattered. All that mattered was that it had happened and that he wasn’t willing to move and risk disturbing the sleeping demon. He was sure that Bendy was exhausted after running from the beast that had come out of the Ink Machine. 

The beast… Where exactly had it come from? He had never seen it before in any previous loop, so had it been stuck in the Ink Machine? But then why had only come out this time? Was it because he hadn’t run? That seemed the only reasonable explanation. Usually, he ran away too fast for him to see anything other than Bendy, and Bendy chased him. Perhaps the monster had always been there but just hadn’t come after him or Bendy because it hadn’t known that anything was there for it to chase. If that was the case, then the fact that it was coming after him and Bendy now was all Henry’s fault. Sighing sadly, Henry looked down at the sleeping toon. He wished that he could do more for his creation. Bendy didn’t deserve this, in his opinion. 

The animator was startled out of his thoughts by the toon in his arms stirring, Bendy shifting slightly and moving one hand up to rub his eyes before seemingly remembering that any such action would be futile and stopping. After shaking his head and supposedly blinking the sleep out of his eyes, Bendy startled as he saw how close he was to Henry’s chest, obviously not remembering how he got there. He looked up at Henry sheepishly. _“Um… Hi, Henry…”_ he stammered, embarrassed and not sure if Henry was okay with this. It was at that moment that the toon realized just how little he knew about his creator. He’d have to fix that later. 

Henry chuckled, a soft smile on his face. “Hello, Bendy,” he said kindly, realizing that Bendy didn’t know how to act around him just yet. “How are you? Did you sleep well?”

 _“Y-yeah, actually,”_ Bendy replied. _“A lot better than usual, if I’m being honest. I can’t remember the last time I slept this well.”_ Bendy then stopped, realizing that he had way overcomplicated his answer.

“Well, I’m glad you slept well then,” Henry said as he allowed Bendy to wriggle out of his arms and into a sitting position before sitting up himself. 

_“Did… did you sleep okay?”_ Bendy asked tentatively. _“You were shaking in your sleep until I laid down next to ya. I was scared you might be having nightmares.”_

“I slept better than usual as well, Bendy,” Henry answered as he stretched and looked at their surroundings. “You don’t have to worry about me.”

 _“I know,”_ Bendy said, embarrassed. _“It’s just… I’ve never had someone who actually cared about me before.”_

Henry turned to look at the bashful toon. “You… haven’t… Didn’t you have only one glove?” 

Bendy gave him a strange look. _“What do you mean? I’ve always only had one glove.”_

“Then you might want to look down at your hands, bud,” Henry said with a soft smile, “‘cause that looks like two right there.” 

Bendy, not sure what his creator was going on about, looked down at his hands. His _whole, white, gloved_ hands. Not believing what was before his eyes, Bendy wiggled his eight _white, whole, gloved_ fingers. _“They’re… on model! I’m on model! Can you see that, Henry? I’m on model!”_ Bendy cried happily, wiggling his fingers. 

“I can see them,” Henry chuckled, “but I don’t think you’re completely on model, buddy. For one thing, you have… hooves?” 

Bendy looked at his feet that were no longer twisted and limp-prone but seemed more like the cloven hooves of a goat. Smiling, Bendy thought to himself that they weren’t shoes, but they’d do. No more getting stuck on random boards! Bendy could _walk_! 

“I do have a question though, Bendy,” Henry began hesitantly, not wanting to ruin the toon’s moment. 

_“Yeah, Henry?”_ Bendy asked, the real smile still spread across his face. Henry had done this to him, he thought. Henry had fixed him. He didn’t know how or when the creator had done it, but he had fixed him. Now he _definitely_ wasn’t letting the animator out of his sight. No way was he going to let the studio get his Henry! 

“Can you, um… see?” Henry asked sheepishly.

That startled Bendy. He hadn’t been expecting a question like that. 

_“Well, um, sort of? It’s kind of distorted, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t seem to get the ink to go away,”_ Bendy admitted. Maybe if Henry really had fixed him, he could fix his eyesight too. _“It’s sort of… stuck there.”_

“Well, would you like me to try and get it to go away?” Henry asked. 

Bendy’s smile widened. _“That would be amazing,”_ he agreed. 

“All right. Now, hold still. You are okay with me touching you, right?” Henry checked. 

Bendy nodded emphatically. If he couldn’t trust Henry not to hurt him, then he couldn’t trust anyone. 

Trying his best to stay still and not bounce, Bendy sat patiently as Henry slid his warm hand over his face. The toon had to fight the urge to grab the animator’s arm and hold it close to him, letting his cold inky body soak in the human’s warmth, but he wasn’t sure if Henry would be okay with that. He hoped eventually that he would, but he wouldn’t do anything of the sort until he got the go-ahead from his old man. 

“There,” Henry said once he had finished, startling Bendy out of his thoughts. “You can open your eyes now, Bendy. The ink is gone.”

Blinking the light out of his eyes while they adjusted to the new light level, Bendy looked around. He could see everything more clearly now, including… Henry. Oh gosh, what had happened to the animator to make him look so ragged and tired?! 

“Well?” Henry asked expectantly, the anticipating smile on his face making him look thirty years younger. “Can you see better?” 

Looking the old man over and recognizing just how much Henry Stein cared about him through his expression, Bendy nodded while trying and failing to hide the tears welling up in his eyes. 

Henry looked at him sympathetically. “Come here,” he said not unkindly, like a father inviting his child in for a comforting embrace. 

Bendy ran that image through his mind. Where had he gotten that from? After finding no rational explanation, Bendy decided just to do as Henry said and let the old animator pull him into a hug. Letting himself show all of his emotions freely for the first time in what felt like years, Bendy smiled through his tears. Yes, this was nice. He was glad that Henry was here. 

Out of the blue, the image of Henry running from him over and over again flashed in front of his eyes, startling Bendy. That had been a memory… Had something happened that he wasn’t aware of? His mind felt foggy… maybe Joey had done something to Henry that had made him run? Yeah, that sounded right. Henry would never run from him… right? He had promised. And yet, the animator had seemed surprised by him talking. Maybe Joey had done something to him or Bendy or them _both_ that had made it so Henry couldn’t hear his own creation cry out for help. That made Bendy angry. Why couldn’t Joey just leave him be? Hadn’t he done enough to him already?! 

“Bendy.” Henry’s voice penetrated the well of emotions that were streaming through the toon’s mind. 

_“Huh?”_ Bendy asked, confused. Had Henry been saying something?

“Are you all right? You looked… concerned,” Henry said warily, obviously worried. 

_“I was just thinking,”_ Bendy assured him. He stopped for a moment and then drove on. _“You wouldn’t… You wouldn’t actually run from me, right? I’m your little devil darling, right?”_

Henry went silent for a moment which left Bendy to fear the worst when he replied, “If I hadn’t heard you up there, I would have run. But not because of how you look, but because I thought you were Joey’s demon, not my little darling. And I apologize for that. Would you… would you forgive an old man for his mistakes, Bendy?” 

The hope in his tone convinced Bendy that the animator was sincere and not spinning lies as Joey did when he supposedly apologized.

 _“I can do that,”_ Bendy agreed, giving his creator a sincere smile. _“I can’t blame you for Joey’s lies. I don’t think I could blame you for anything, Henry.”_ And yet where was this mass of pain and grief coming from whenever he thought of Henry running away?

Henry smiled and stroked the toon between his symmetrical, _on-model_ horns. “Thanks, bud. I appreciate it. Now, we should probably get going. This isn’t the safest place for a reunion.” 

Bendy nodded in agreement. At any moment that beast could find a way to get to them, and he didn’t want to be here when that happened. 

Letting Bendy go as he got up and grabbed the ax, his expression turned determined. “Now, our first objective is to find a new exit,” he said decisively as he held a hand out to Bendy. 

Bendy’s shoulders slumped. _“I told you, I can’t leave! The ink won’t let me!”_

“Well, we won’t know if we don’t try,” Henry said kindly. “Just, uh, stay close to me, okay? I just got you back. I don’t want to lose you again.” 

Bendy nodded. He didn’t know exactly what had Henry so on edge, but it probably wasn’t good. After taking Henry’s hand and allowing him to help him up, he found that he was about the same height as Henry, which got an eyebrow tweak out of the old animator. 

“Huh. Seems like my devil darling’s grown up a bit,” Henry said, but his tone let Bendy know he was joking. 

_“Y-yeah, I guess I did,”_ Bendy agreed. He would have to get used to this new form, but it was better than his last one. He had more control over his movements, and he had a feeling he was going to need that here. 

After Henry used the ax and got through the door, he led Bendy through the hallways of the studio as if he had been there for years. Which, Henry thought ruefully, was kind of true, if he thought about it in a certain light. Who knew how many years the hundreds of loops he had been through added up to be! He shuddered. He didn’t want to think about that. Not with freedom so close at hand. Maybe, just _maybe_ , he could get out of here this time. He couldn’t wait to show Bendy the sky. Henry knew Bendy would love it. 

On the wall, there was a message that read, **He will set us free.** Below that though was a second message that forced a chuckle out of Henry: **You’re insane, you know that?**

“I don’t think he does, but good effort,” he muttered. 

_“What was that?”_ Bendy asked. 

“Nothing, nothing,” Henry replied. It would take a while for him to get used to having someone close by. He wasn’t alone anymore. 

_“Okay… I found a tape thingy! Can I play it?”_ Bendy asked, a smile plastered on his face. He had other expressions now, to his delight, but he was just so happy to be around his creator again. 

“Sure,” Henry said with a smile. They had to play it to keep moving anyway, and he was curious how Bendy would react to it. 

The tall toon excitedly pushed the button, but his excitement deflated as he heard what Sammy Lawrence had to say: 

> **“He appears from the shadows to rain his sweet blessings upon me. The figure of ink that shines in the darkness. I see you, my savior. I pray you hear me.**
> 
> **“Those old songs, I still sing them. For I know you are coming to save me. And I will be swept into your final loving embrace.**
> 
> **“But, love requires sacrifice. Can I get an amen?”**

Visibly shaken, Bendy was about to say something when a voice from behind them added, “I said, can I get an _amen_?” 

Bendy whipped around searching for the source of the voice, but there was no one to be found. _“I-I don’t like this, Henry,”_ he stammered, stepping closer to the old animator. 

Henry smiled reassuringly at him. “Don’t worry. Sammy’s a little spooky, but he’s really just an old kook. He’s practically harmless. Come on.” 

Bendy stared at him. _“Um… what?”_

“Nothing,” Henry sighed. It was just his luck that Bendy didn’t remember the loops. He had thought maybe, just maybe, the toon might have remembered something after Bendy had asked him about running from him, but it seemed too good to be true. He was alone in this trial, and he always would be. “Let’s just keep moving, buddy.”

Bendy balked at the flooded hallway they had to wade through next. 

_“Do I actually have to walk through that?”_ he asked a tad fearfully. 

“Yeah, but don’t worry. I won’t let you go under,” Henry promised, grabbing Bendy’s hand and leading him through the ink. 

Bendy was finally calm enough that he didn’t need to hold Henry’s hand the whole way through when he saw a strange figure up ahead. _“Hello?”_ he called. _“Can you help us? We’re trying to find the exit.”_

“Bendy, I don’t think that’s a good idea—” Henry began, but Bendy was already gone. He caught up to the demon to find him staring at the wall. 

_“Where the heck did that guy go?”_ Bendy asked Henry in disbelief. 

“No idea,” Henry answered honestly, “but he’s not our biggest concern right now. Come on. We have buttons to find.”

 _“Buttons?”_ Bendy asked, curious. 

“Yeah. We need to open this door and to do so we need to find three buttons to power the lever,” Henry said as he clicked the button on the shelf behind the bacon soup cans. 

_“Okay… But how do you know that?”_ Bendy asked, suspicion clear in his pie-cut eyes. 

Henry sighed. _Because I’ve spent the last few years reliving the same series of events over and over again,_ he wanted to say, but he couldn’t. He couldn’t drag Bendy into his mess. He couldn’t even say _it’s a long story_ for fear of making the toon a target. He couldn’t allow Joey to hurt any more innocents, especially not his little devil darling.

The animator shrugged. “Just a hunch. See? The light lit up above the lever when I hit the button.” 

Bendy looked and saw that Henry was right. The first light above the lever had indeed lit up when Henry pushed the button. Still… something about it seemed off. Henry seemed to know more about what was going on than he was letting on. Maybe it had something to with the gaps in Bendy’s memory… He shook his head. He’d have to figure it out later.

After finding all three buttons with two more worrying trips through the flooded hallway as Bendy refused to leave Henry alone, the gate to the music department was finally opened. 

Bendy looked in awe at the crazy place, making Henry smile. He could barely remember when he had first gone through here, but Bendy was reminding him of that. He watched with amusement as Bendy listened to Sammy’s voice recording, a look of confusion crossing the toon’s face. 

_“How the heck is this guy the same one as the recording in the other room?”_ Bendy asked, his eyebrows tweaked. 

“This one is the old Sammy, the one I used to work with,” Henry explained as he flipped the power switch and started up the Music Department. “The other one is an insane cultist who has _way_ too much free time on his hands.” 

Bendy snickered. _“What the heck is Sammy worshippin’ to make him go looney?!”_

Henry laughed at the unintentional pun. He doubted that Bendy even knew what Looney Tunes was. “Oh, not much,” Henry smirked. “Just a smiling, dancing demon.” 

_“What kind of demon would smile and dance?! Are you sure Sammy’s… sane…”_ Bendy stopped as he processed that and then stared at Henry. _“What.”_

“Yep. He worships you because he thinks you’re all-powerful and can free him from the ink’s control,” Henry chuckled. 

_“Me? Free someone from the ink?! I can’t even free myself from it! What does he think I am, a genie?!”_ Bendy asked, surprised.

“No. Just an all-powerful demon. I’m sure you’re the only one who can convince him otherwise.”

 _“Yeah! I think I’ll give him a piece of my mind! Whoever told him that I could free him is seriously misleadin’, ‘cause I can’t!”_

“You do that,” Henry said with a smile. “Now stay close. And don’t get hit.” 

_“Hit by what?”_ Bendy asked as a searcher popped up behind him. 

“Look out!” Henry cried, shoving Bendy out of the way as he buried the ax in the searcher’s inky body and returned it to its slumber. “You have to be careful, Bendy! These things are dangerous! They could kill you if you’re not careful.” 

_“Henry!”_ Bendy yelled as a searcher appeared behind the animator just as Henry was fighting another. If Bendy didn’t do something, he could lose his creator! So he lunged, and… 

Henry stared at the toon that had his claws outstretched and covered in ink, both breathing heavily. While he had been fighting the second searcher, it seemed that Bendy had saved him from a sticky end by ending a third. 

Bendy looked down at his clawed gloves in horror. _“This… this isn’t right! I’m supposed to be a cute little devil! I can’t be a monster! I can’t! He can’t be right! He was a liar! I can’t be…”_ Hugging his torso, Bendy tried and failed to block out the memories of Joey calling him a monster, an abomination, a soulless freak, a failed experiment, a **_true demon_**. 

He wasn’t— 

Henry had fixed him— 

He couldn’t— 

He wasn’t a monster! 

Thoughts that he had tried to hide for so long of how he couldn’t be anything more than a monster swam through his mind like fish in a bowl. It seemed like nothing would make them stop. Gosh, how he wished they would _stop—_

Suddenly, Bendy was startled out of his flashback by a pair of strong arms wrapping themselves around him. He looked up to find Henry’s kind face full of compassion and concern for his little devil darling. 

“I don’t know what Joey did or said to you,” he said softly, “but I promise you are not a monster. You are my wonderful devil darling, and that will never change.” 

_“B-but… I k-killed it…”_ he whimpered. 

“And saved my life in the process,” Henry pointed out. “And besides, it’s better to be in the ink than in that twisted half-life in my opinion.” He took Bendy’s hands and the duo watched as the claws morphed back into the white gloves. “See? You’re not a monster; you’re just defending someone you care about, and there is nothing wrong with that.” 

_“R-really? That doesn’t make me a monster? A freak?”_ he asked, hope clear in his pie-cut eyes. 

“Nope. If you’re a monster, then I’m Joey Drew,” Henry declared. 

_“W-what?!”_ Bendy stared at him in surprise. _“You’re nothing like Joey Drew! Joey Drew is a cruel manipulator who doesn’t care who he hurts, and you are_ ** _nothing_ **_like that, Henry! You’re kind, and talented, and amazing and… Why are you laughing?”_

“I think you missed the point,” Henry chuckled. “What I meant is I am definitely not Joey Drew, and therefore you are not a monster. See what I mean?” 

Bendy considered that. _“I think so. What you’re saying is if I’m a monster, that would make you Joey, so as that isn’t true, I can’t be a monster?”_

Henry laughed. “Pretty much,” he agreed. “Now, what do you say we find that way out of here, Bendy? There are so many things outside that I want to show you, like the sky and sugar and freedom…” He trailed off, remembering everything he missed about the outside. He really couldn’t wait to show everything to his little devil darling. 

_“Freedom? I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before,”_ Bendy said, looking up at Henry with a curious expression. 

“Then it’s about time you did,” Henry said with a smile as he stood up. He felt a sense of hope stronger than he had in years. Maybe there was a chance of escape after all. “Let’s go find that exit.” 

_“Okay! And then I’ll find out what_ **_freedom_ ** _is!”_ Bendy cheered, feeling much better. 

As the two made their way one step closer to finding the exit, they didn’t see the inky figure watching from the shadows. 

“So… my lord has a new ally,” Sammy muttered. “Perhaps this new sheep, if handled correctly, could be the key to freeing us all from this inky tomb.” He steepled his fingers together and smiled hopefully. “We’ll just have to wait and see, but I know that in the end... 

**“He will set us _free_.”**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So we've found out a few more things about what's going on. Bendy doesn't remember the loops very well for some reason, Henry has been affected by the ink more than we originally thought to the point where he has powers he hasn't discovered yet, Bendy is suspicious of Henry and the animator's knowing-more-than-he-should, and Bendy and Henry are adorable together! ^^) Oh! And don't forget that good old Sammy Lawrence is planning something, and I doubt it's good...
> 
> In my opinion, though, the most important question to answer is who or what is the beast from the machine...
> 
> **And where is it now?**
> 
> Well, toodles! I hope you enjoyed this update! Until next time!
> 
> _\- TIF_


	3. I Don't Sing With Psychos

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 2 of the game becomes my living nightmare to write and things start to get interesting.
> 
> Bendy has flashbacks to the past. 
> 
> Henry is surprised by new things. 
> 
> Sammy is a jerk as usual.
> 
> And Illusion the dragon is ticked. **Seriously** ticked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we start this, you should know that I kinda hate the beginning of this chapter myself. I just was lacking motivation to write this part of the game, but the game must go on! The second half after the dot-dot-dot is much better, in my opinion. I might end up rewriting this section.
> 
> Second, I do have art for this story, and although I am posting some of it here in the story, all that is one here and anything that isn't is being posted on my Instagram account. _**NOTE:** Some of this art contains spoilers for the story._ My Insta is TheInkedFantasy, if any of you get curious. I also do Ask The Characters sometimes and hope to do live streams of me drawing my art and talking to fans, so that'll be fun too.
> 
> Anyhoo... On with the chapter!!!
> 
>  **EDIT 5-18-20:** I added a piece of art at the bottom of this chapter to show what the beast looks like. The quote pictured on it is from later in the story and who says it hasn't been decided yet, but it will be important. Besides, I thought you guys might want a little more of a visual, even if it isn't much.

Unaware of the shadows on their tail, Bendy and Henry began exploring the Music Department, stumbling upon a recording by Wally Franks outside Sammy’s office. 

As Henry was about to press the play button on the tape with a sigh, he was distracted by Bendy playing with the door handle of the door down the hall. 

“What are you doing?” Henry asked, one eyebrow raised. 

_“This door is locked. Huh. I’m used to being able to rip doors off their hinges whenever I want,”_ Bendy mused as he jiggled the doorknob some more. Then he froze. _“Wait… When did I start ripping doors off hinges?”_

Henry chuckled. “I don’t know if you know this, but most people can’t rip doors off their hinges whenever they want to get into a locked room. I believe that’s what they made locks for in the first place.”

 _“Oh. Well, then how do you open locks? Because I can’t seem to morph my ink into a shape that will fit in the keyhole,”_ he said as he examined the keyhole curiously, wiggling his fingers as if the action would magically open the door and reveal what was hidden inside.

That made Henry snicker. “That’s because this is reality, not a cartoon, Bendy. We have to find the keys to open the door.” 

_“Keys… Where in the world would we find keys? It’s not like they’ll just appear out of…”_ Bendy trailed off, abandoning the locked door as he noticed the tape. _“I call turning it on!”_

Henry laughed. Bendy acted so much like a kid despite his looks it was adorable! He watched the toon press the play button with a smile that soon faded as he saw the sadness in Bendy’s eyes as the demon listened to Wally’s voice play. 

“What’s wrong, Bendy?” Henry asked. 

_“Wally was one of the only people who were nice to me,”_ Bendy said sadly. _“I sure hope he didn’t get tangled up in all this. He doesn’t deserve this.”_

“I don’t know if he’s here, but if he is, we’ll find him,” Henry assured him. “But you know what I think would make his day?” 

_“What?”_

“If we found his keys for him. He was always losing them. Maybe we could make him smile when we find him by giving back his keys. I’m sure he’s not very happy right now, but we could change that!” Henry knew that there was a slim chance they’d ever find out what happened to Wally Franks, but he couldn’t bear seeing Bendy sad. Besides, there was always a chance. 

_“Yeah! You’re right!”_ Bendy said, looking back to his normal self as his smile returned. _“If we found his keys, that’d make him happy! Look out, keys! I’m gonna find ya and give ya to Wally when we find him!”_

Henry chuckled as Bendy began rushing from trashcan to trashcan looking for the keys. He was glad he had found a way to cheer the toon up.

 _“Found them!!”_ Bendy cried, holding up the keys triumphantly. 

“Great job, Bendy!” Henry smiled. “Why don’t we go unlock that closet? Find out what’s in it.” 

_“Okay!!”_ Bendy agreed, following Henry back to the closet and watching him unlock it before opening the door to find some bacon soup, a few knickknacks they couldn’t name, and an audio recording labeled Sammy Lawrence. 

_“Oh great,”_ Bendy groaned. _“This guy again. What does he want this time?”_

That made Henry chuckle. “Don’t dis him too badly. This is his territory after all. If you look around, you might see him watching us carefully just out of sight.” 

That made Bendy shudder. That lunatic was watching them? What was his problem?! Why couldn’t he just leave them alone and let them find their way out in peace?! 

The toon was startled out of his thoughts when Henry started the tape. Sammy’s voice echoed through the halls, saying: 

> **_Every artistic person needs a sanctuary. Joey Drew has his, and I have mine. To enter, you need only know my favorite song:_ **
> 
> **_The banjo playfully plucks._ **
> 
> **_The piano delicately calls._ **
> 
> **_The bass fiddle sings with deep articulation._ **
> 
> **_The banjo once again strums its melody._ **
> 
> **_Sing my song and my sanctuary will open unto you._ **

The duo stared at the recording before looking at each other. 

_“Welp,”_ Bendy said finally, _“this guy’s lost his marbles.”_

Henry tried to stifle his laughter and failed miserably. Man, had he missed having company! When was the last time he actually _laughed_ like this?! The more time he spent with his creation, the more Henry realized that, somewhere deep in his heart, he had hoped for this, for Bendy to join him and be his constant companion instead of his hunter, for a chance to turn all of this around. To actually get the chance to have his hopes fulfilled… it was nice. 

“Yeah, I guess he did, didn’t he?” Henry replied once he had regained his composure. “Now, why don’t we explore this level a little more and see what the heck he’s talking about.” 

_“I saw an organ and a couple of rooms we didn’t really look at in detail!”_ Bendy proposed. 

“That sounds good,” Henry agreed.

They first went back to the pipe organ, where Bendy had a blast banging on the keys until he heard groaning. He froze, listening. 

“What is it?” Henry asked him. 

_“Someone… is crying,”_ Bendy said slowly, continuing to listen until the groaning stopped. Then he pressed the keys again. _“They’re… lonely. Really lonely. And sad. Really sad. I don’t know why though. I can’t hear them well enough to know what they’re saying.”_ He repeated the listening and playing a few more times until the groaning didn’t come back. _“He stopped. I don’t know why though. I hope he’s all right.”_

“He?” Henry repeated. “How do you know it’s a guy?” 

_“His voice,”_ Bendy replied with a shrug. _“It was distinctly male. Like Sammy’s. And Wally’s. Except with a sort of fancy accent. Like… Charley’s, maybe? Yeah. Like Charley’s.”_ The demon seemed to almost be talking to himself, trying to explain what he heard until he realized something. _“Wait… You couldn’t hear it?”_ he questioned Henry, confused. 

“No, I couldn’t,” Henry answered truthfully. “All I heard was groaning.” 

_“Huh.”_ Bendy thought about that for a moment before continuing. _“Might be because I’m a toon. Or maybe it’s because you’re not made of ink? I don’t know. If it’s the ink thing, we are_ ** _not_ **_testing that. I am not willing to turn you into an ink person over some silly whim.”_

“And I’d rather not become one,” Henry agreed. “Let’s avoid turning me into an ink person if we can.”

 _“I like that plan,”_ Bendy said with a soft smile as he abandoned the organ. _“Let’s go check out the other rooms.”_

Their spirits were lifted when they found an expression sheet for Bendy. 

“You weren’t kidding about not having emotions,” Henry chuckled as Bendy laughed at the note attached that read, **Do not show to Joey.**

_“Nope! I don’t even know why I didn’t have emotions!”_ Bendy laughed. _“Boris and Alice have them. Why not me?”_

“That is a good question!” Henry snickered. “You had emotions in my original concept sketches. I don’t know why Joey wanted to change that. You had a tail too!” 

_“I did? What was it for?”_ Bendy asked curiously. 

“It would have helped with the no expressions problem. The tail would have reacted to your emotions. Say you were surprised. It would have shot straight up in the air, showing that emotion. Or maybe you were sad. It would have drooped lower than usual. Mischievous? Wave back and forth, almost flicking the air as you pranked someone. It was just an instrument for more expression of feelings.” 

_“Huh. Wonder why Joey wouldn’t want that. But then again, he didn’t want a lot of things for me.”_ Bendy seemed saddened by the statement, the jolly mood dampened considerably. 

Henry placed a hand on Bendy’s shoulder, causing the toon to look up at his creator. “It’s okay, Bendy,” Henry told him kindly. “You don’t have to worry about what Joey wants or doesn’t want anymore. You’re with me now, and you don’t have to listen to anything that jerk says if you don’t want to. He won’t hurt you again. I’ll protect you from him. Promise.” 

That made Bendy smile. _“Thanks, Henry. You know just what to say to make me feel better. It’s a nice change from everything going on here.”_

“I could say the same to you,” Henry said, returning the smile. 

At that moment, he wanted to sit Bendy down and explain everything to him, to tell him everything that had happened to him, but he restrained himself. He wouldn’t let Bendy become Joey’s new target. Henry would have to carry that weight alone. 

_“Henry?”_ Bendy asked, concerned. _“Are you all right?”_

“Come on,” Henry said finally. “Let’s go figure out Sammy’s puzzle.” 

As they went back into the main hub of the Music Department (and beat up any and all searchers who attacked them), Bendy noticed a door he hadn’t before. Leading Henry inside, he found it was the band room, instruments littered everywhere and not a soul in sight. Bendy shuddered. This room wasn’t meant to be empty, he knew. It was supposed to be full of musicians practicing their craft and friendly laughter when someone got a note blatantly wrong and chatter about what was going on that night. But instead, it was barren of all life, and Bendy immediately hated it. 

“Is something wrong?” Henry asked him. 

_“This room… feels wrong,”_ Bendy began, trying to put his feelings into words. _“It should be filled with people, music, and something should be playing on the screen from…”_ He looked up and saw the projection booth. _“Norman’s booth!”_ he cried excitedly as he dashed out of the room. 

“Bendy, wait!” Henry called after him, but Bendy wasn’t listening. That was Norman’s booth, one of the few people that were nice to him before the ink took over the studio. Maybe, just _maybe_ , he would be there. Norman knew this studio inside and out. If he was there, maybe he could help them find an exit! 

He rushed into the booth only to find there was no one there, his hopes abashed. Norman wasn’t there and, judging by the lack of ink in the small room, he probably never had been. 

Henry placed a hand on Bendy’s shoulder. “I’m sorry, bud. Did you know him?” 

_“Norman was one of the only ones who were ever nice to me,”_ he told the animator. _“He didn’t run away when he saw me or call me a monster. He treated me like an actual person, more than anyone else ever did. Wally would talk to me when he was on break or really just trying to avoid doing his job. He was funny and nice. And then Thomas would bring me things from the outside once he got over my monstrosity. They were my only friends, and the machine got them._ **_Joey_ **_got them. I thought maybe, just_ **_maybe_** _, once Norman had been transformed by the ink, he might have come here, but I guess not.”_

“I’m sure we’ll run into him eventually,” Henry said reassuringly. “He was a very important guy here, keeping things running. I don’t think he’d become a searcher. I bet we’ll know him when we see him.” He, of course, knew exactly what had happened to Norman, but he couldn’t tell Bendy that. All he could do was be as reassuring as possible and hoped that it cheered Bendy up. “Look, Bendy,” he said as he gestured to a recording next to the projector. “It’s a recording. Maybe Norman left it.” 

Bendy slowly went to turn it on and listened to the thick accent of the projectionist talk about Sammy’s peculiarities, seeming to cheer up a bit as he heard his friend’s voice come from the recording. 

_“So Sammy did something weird in the band room with the projector, huh?”_ Bendy mused, his old spirit back after hearing his friend’s voice after so long. _“Maybe that has something to do with his favorite song!”_

“I bet you’re right, Bendy,” Henry smiled, glad to see the toon back to normal. “Why don’t you stay up here and turn on the projector once I get down there and play those instruments Sammy talked about in his recording? Then we’ll see what happens.” 

_“Are you sure you’ll be okay alone down there?”_ Bendy asked worriedly. _“I don’t want to lose you to the ink.”_

“I’ll be fine. Soon as we figure out what this is supposed to be, you can come down and join me,” Henry told him reassuringly.

 _“Okay…”_

And so Henry left Bendy in the projector booth and ran down to the band room, muttering, “Banjo, piano, fiddle, banjo,” as he walked into the room. He looked up at Bendy, who looked severely worried, and told him, “Start the projector.” 

Bendy nodded as did as he was asked before Henry began rushing around the band room, playing instruments and confusing Bendy. _What is he doing?_ the toon thought. He was surprised when the second after the banjo was played the second time and the projector went off, a secret door opened up nearby. His original thought of _What was he doing?_ went to **_How the heck did Henry know that would work?!_ ** There was no way Henry should have known how to do that, even with the extremely sketchy clues they had been given. If he had been using those clues and _somehow_ put what he did together from that, he shouldn’t have gotten it that easily! Something was off. Really off. 

Suddenly, a searing pain caused Bendy to grasp his head as a memory flashed before his eyes. A figure made of ink wearing a Bendy mask turning on the projector and then doing what Henry had just done… Where had that come from? He couldn’t remember when he had seen that, only that it had annoyed him. What was going on?!

“Hey, Bendy!” Henry called up to him, startling the demon out of his thoughts. “Are you coming down here or what?”

 _“I-I’m coming!”_ he replied as he started for the exit of the projector room. He’d have to figure the not-memories out later. For now, he had an exit to find. 

Henry was waiting for him by the door when Bendy noticed a recording behind the old animator. 

_“What’s that?”_ he asked, approaching it. 

“Oh, that? That’s just little old naive Susie getting seduced by Joey,” Henry said, sounding almost… _bored_! That set off alarm bells in Bendy’s mind. It was almost as if Henry knew what was going on before it actually happened! 

He shook it off but promised himself that he would force answers out of the old animator later as he pressed the recording’s play button, causing Susie’s voice to ring through the band room. Henry had been right. It really was just proof of another innocent victim being seduced by Joey Drew. But how had Henry known that? 

“You ready to see your most loyal fan’s sanctuary?” Henry joked. 

_“Please don’t say it like that,”_ Bendy pleaded. _“The fact that that guy became this insane by worshipping me is bad enough! You don’t have to make fun of it!”_

“Okay, Bendy,” Henry agreed. “I won’t bring it up if you don’t want me to.” 

They filed into the sanctuary to find an ink pump, a desk covered in paper, and the following message on the wall: 

**_Sing a happy song_ **

**_Whistle a merry tune_ **

**_Wait for his arrival_ **

**_He’s coming very soon_ **

_“Now I_ **_know_** _he’s lost it,”_ Bendy mumbled. 

“Was there ever a doubt?” Henry asked as he began to turn the valve. 

_“True,”_ Bendy agreed. He started to head for the exit when Henry stepped in front of him. 

“Stay behind me, Bendy,” he said in a low tone. 

_“Why?”_ Bendy asked. 

“Just do it,” he said simply as he stepped into the band room and began swinging his ax. Bendy peeked into the room to find a multitude of searchers attacking the old animator who fought them off valiantly. 

Suddenly, a memory of Norman and Wally defending him from Joey and his experiments came to the forefront of his mind, the strong men trying to reason with the insane director and eventually resorting to violence and attacking Joey Drew before falling to the ink just to save Bendy from an even more horrid fate, and with it, a flash of fear washed through the demonic toon. He couldn’t allow Henry to fall to the same fate. He couldn’t allow another protector, another _friend_ to become consumed by Joey’s arrogance and blatant disregard for human life or life in general. 

**He wouldn’t allow history to repeat itself again.**

As his fear turned to anger toward their attackers, tendrils of ink spread through the floor and killed the searchers one by one, saving Henry from being overwhelmed and potentially killed, but they didn’t stop there. They stretched out through the Music Department, only stopping at the stairs to the infirmary, killing every last one of those cursed searchers, squeezing the life out of the ink and forcing it into the well of voices. 

It didn’t stop until Bendy felt Henry’s hand on his shoulder. “Bendy? They’re gone. You killed them. You can stop now.” 

Bendy looked up, startled, to see that Henry looked a little frightened as he tried to reassure him. He had _scared_ Henry, but he couldn’t figure out what he could have done to do such a thing. 

_“Wh-what… Why are you scared? What did I do?”_ Bendy asked warily, not wanting to disappoint Henry. He had done something wrong. He knew it! He just hoped that Henry would be merciful with the punishment. _“Whatever it was,”_ he said, cutting Henry off before he could say anything, _“I know I can do better! Please, give me another chance! I’ll fix it. It won’t happen again, I prom_ — _”_

“Calm down, Bendy!” Henry interrupted. “You didn’t do anything wrong. You just startled me, that’s all. You killed the searchers and saved my life. It’s okay.” 

_“I… did?”_ Bendy asked, surprised. Henry wasn’t mad?

“Yeah,” Henry confirmed. “And I thought I was supposed to be protecting you! I guess that you were protecting me a lot more than I ever could you.” 

Bendy’s spirits rose. He had done well! He had done a good thing! He had done something right and helped Henry by _saving his life_! Then he realized he was supposed to say something in reply. 

_“W-well, you were the one who saved me from the beast,”_ Bendy protested. _“I would probably have been lost to the well of voices if you hadn’t dragged me with you.”_

“Then we protect each other always,” Henry smiled. “Now, we need to go find another valve. Do you want to follow?” 

_“What kind of question is that?”_

“I’m going to take that as a yes,” Henry chuckled. 

They went through the infirmary and the sewers with no difficulty, though Bendy stayed close to Henry as they passed by his very first prison. They only paused after encountering a recording on the shelf behind the lift that they had used to smash Jack (Bendy was alarmed to find that the searcher had the same voice as the one who was crying when he played the organ), Henry remarking that that was new. Knowing that Henry wouldn’t tell him what he meant by that, Bendy pressed the play button on the recording marked Cora Nixen: 

> **_“‘I dere. Ah know nobody will never listen to dis, but ah need to get dis somewhere outside mah head, so ‘ere goes nothin’._ **
> 
> **_“Ah followed mah little ten-year-old sista’ inta da ‘bandoned Joey Drew Studios three days ago afta’ mah mothah’s stories of animators and dem_** **magic** ** _convinced ‘er dat dere were actually magic people inside. Ma wasn’t home to tell ‘er da truth, ‘nfortunately, so ah was forced to make sure that she didn’t get ‘erself killed as usual. We entered through da front door ta be greeted by wha’ ah can only describe as_ ** **livin’ toons** ** _, with Alice and Boris and Edgar watchin’ us from da hallway like we was gonna bite dem heads off. Was almost like dey was scared o’ us, which is absurd. Who’d be scared o’ a couple o’ kids? Ah told Alliyah to be careful before disappearin’ into the shadows to watch ‘er play like ah usually did, watchin’ out for dem unsavories to appear ta snatch up mah little hatchlin’ sis while she was playin’ with ‘er new friends. And dey didn’t for a while, but when dey did, ah knew we was in trouble. Big trouble._ **
> 
> **_“Dem toons gravitated to ‘er just like everyone did when dey met mah little sis, to da point dat dey were extremely protective of ‘er. Da reason dey was scared o’ us when dey did saw us was dey thought we was some illusion, a cruel trick from what I assume is da devil’s prince ‘round dese parts. Dey warned us ‘bout some ‘Mista Joey Drew,’ sayin’ if ‘e saw us, we was good as goners. Ah didn’t know just how true dat was until ah saw ‘im look at mah little sista’ for da first time. Ah didn’t let ‘im see me, ‘course, but ah nearly went out dere and gave ‘im the what for when ah saw ‘is look. It was da way a kid looks at a toy dey want, like she was somethin’ ‘e could own or a prize ‘e could win. ‘Lliyah doesn’t notice nothin’ like dat, but ah do. Dis Mista Joey isn’t one ya’d find in da funny papers. Nah, ‘e’s da one in dose criminal stories on da front page. Dat is, if anyone ever caught ‘im, ‘e would be. Ah’ve realized dat ‘e was da one dat ‘urt da toons, dat made ‘em what dey are now. Ah won’t let ‘im do it ta ‘Lliyah. ‘E’ll be sorry he ever tried to do such a thing to mah little sis, even if it’s da last thing ah ever do._ **
> 
> **_“In da meantime, ah’ve been hardpressed to avoid dem deep puddles. Ma never could afford dose fancy swimmin’ lessons. Ah ‘ave da feelin’ dat if ah ever fell in one o’ dose things, ah wouldn’t make it out again. If Mista Drew ever found out ‘bout dat, ah’m sure he’d use it ta make me disappear so ‘e could get mah little sis without trouble, but ah won’t allow dat. Ah won’t allow ‘im ta make ‘er like dem toons ‘e ‘as trapped ‘ere._ **
> 
> **_“Looks like ah’ve gotta go make a deal with da shadow man. Ah just hope dat it doesn’t end badly. All ah know is dat you can never trust a devil’s prince unless yer a fool. And ah ain’t a fool. Ah never will be. But even kids can make mistakes. Ah just hope dis ain’t one, or else me and Alliyah ain’t ever making out o’ ‘ere and Mista Joey Drew will never get ‘is comeupance._ **
> 
> **_“And ah can’t allow dat.”_**

Once the recording of Cora’s heavy southern accent ended, Bendy and Henry stared at the mechanical box. 

_“That… that’s bad. What happened here? Why can’t I remember it?”_ Bendy asked. _“That voice… that was a kid! What was a kid doing here in the studio?”_

“I don’t know, Bendy,” Henry said. “I really don’t know. Did you meet her?” 

_“I… I think so, but I can’t put a face to the name. I just know that this girl had a connection to dark blue for some reason…”_ Bendy muttered, searching his memory for evidence of the girl’s existence and what might have happened to her, but finding nothing. Why were there so many holes in his memory?! 

“Come on, Bendy,” Henry said, placing a hand on Bendy’s shoulder. “We can figure it out later. Let’s find that exit.” 

The demon nodded. Memories were a second priority to finding a way out. 

As they made their way back upstairs, Henry silently counted in his head the seconds before the dustpan hit his head and he lost consciousness. 

# ⋯

When Henry opened his eyes again, it was to Sammy Lawrence’s mask in his face, and he nearly groaned. He had memorized everything about this room and the events that unfolded here. Why would it be--

Then he froze. Bendy. Where was Bendy? He had been right behind him when Sammy would have knocked him out. What had happened to the toon? 

“Ah, there we go,” Sammy began, “nice and tight. We wouldn’t want our sheep roaming away, now would we? No, we wouldn’t.”

Henry looked around, ignoring the cultist as he searched for his toon companion. Sammy couldn’t have hurt him. The guy worshipped him like a god! Sammy couldn’t have hurt Bendy… right?

Sammy, on the other hand, didn’t seem to notice that Henry wasn’t paying attention to him. But then again, he never did before. “I must admit, I am… honored you came all the way down to visit me. It almost makes what I’m about to do seem… cruel. But the believers must honor their savior. I must have him notice me--” 

“Look, Lawrence, let’s cut to the chase,” Henry snapped, his anger having boiled up when he couldn’t find Bendy. “I get it. I do. You want to get out of this stupid studio and you want to be human again. I get it. But newsflash, psycho! Nobody is getting out! Definitely not you, at least! Do you know want happens to you every time you try to sacrifice me to Bendy to fix your abyss of a body? You get killed by Bendy himself while I escape!! So why don’t you just show me where Bendy is and I’ll make sure you live another day, okay? How does that sound?” 

Sammy stared at him for a moment before speaking again. “Wait… You seem familiar to me… That voice… That temper…” He shook his head. “Not now. You want to see our lord? He got a little violent when you lost consciousness, so I had to take… _extreme measures_.” 

The inky cultist stepped out of the way, and Henry’s blood ran cold. What had been previously blocked from his view by Sammy’s body was the horrific scene of Bendy trapped in a ritual circle, thick chains linked to the posts at either side of him holding his arms out to his side and keeping him from wiping at the inky tears streaming down his face, no doubt from worry and fear. His shallow breathing showed just how much the drawing on the floor hurt him, and the burns covering his body gave evidence of him trying to struggle. He looked up tiredly and his half-lidded eyes shot wide open when he saw Henry. 

_“H-Henry!”_ Bendy cried, trying to get closer to the old animator and causing more burns to appear as he crossed into the outer circle, forcing him to drawback with an agonized whimper. 

“It’s okay, Bendy,” Henry assured him hurriedly, not wanting the toon to hurt himself. “I’m here. Just calm down. It’s going to be okay. I’m going to get you out of there, just hang on--”

 _“I-I th-thought he k-killed you,”_ he sobbed. _“I th-thought you were d-dead…”_

“No, I’m all right,” Henry was quick to say, feeling a need to comfort the demon. “The only bad thing I got was maybe a mild concussion. I’m okay.” 

“That’s enough out of you both,” Sammy said definitely, drawing the duo’s attention back to him. “The ritual is about to begin, and I will finally be free…” 

“Are you insane?!” Henry shouted, struggling against the ropes he knew wouldn’t loosen until Sammy left the room. “You chained him up in a ritual circle that physically _burns_ him, and you want him to help you by turning you human again?! Why would he help you?!” 

“He is our Lord,” Sammy reasoned. “He will set us free.”

 _“I t-told you! I c-can’t help you! I c-can’t even help myself!!”_ Bendy cried. _“If I-I was some all p-powerful d-demon, I would have b-broken out of this b-binding circle m-myself and g-gotten Henry away f-from you, y-you f-freak!”_

“Now, now, none of that,” Sammy said calmly as he stepped toward the door leading into the next room. “Once you drain the sacrifice’s life force--” 

_“I d-do WHAT?!?!”_ Bendy shrieked, staring at the man in horror. _“I will d-do NO such thing t-to my creator!! N-now I KNOW y-you’re insane!”_

“--I will be free from this… dark… abyss I call a body, and the prophecy shall be fulfilled!” He shut the door and the bonds holding Henry to the post began to loosen enough for Henry to fiddle with the knots in the ropes. 

“Sheep, sheep, sheep, it’s time for sleep,” Sammy's voice rang through the speakers. “Rest your head, it’s time for bed. In the morning you may wake, or in the morning **you’ll be dead**.”

 _SNAP!_ The rope broke and Henry rushed to Bendy’s side, pausing only briefly to see if the circle would hurt him too before rushing to the toon’s side.

“How do I get you out of this?” Henry asked him. 

_“I… I d-don’t know…”_ he admitted through his tears, glad Henry was trying to help but still terrified he’d stay trapped in this prison ring. _“I always p-p-passed out before Joey ever tried g-getting me out these h-horrid things…”_

Henry froze. _”Joey_ used these things on you?” he asked, anger blazing in his green eyes. 

_“Y-yes,”_ Bendy said quietly, afraid of his creator’s fury.

“When I get my hands on him--” Henry seethed before taking a deep breath. “Let’s just work on getting you out of this first. Hold still. I’m going to try and break the chains.”

An ax and some whimpers of pain later, Bendy was cradling his burned arms while Henry looked the situation over. 

“Do you think I could get you across the circle fast enough to avoid burning you?” Henry asked, and Bendy shook his head. 

_“That would just make the burns worse, I think,”_ he told him as Henry started looking around for something. 

Henry searched the shelves and lit up when he found a small bottle marked _acetone_. Bendy drew back as far as he could away from the bottle, shaking from terror. 

_“K-k-keep th-that a-away f-f-from m-me,”_ he whimpered, memories of torture sessions involving the cursed liquid and the Master of the studio shooting to the forefront of his mind. 

Henry looked at the bottle and then at Bendy, sympathy growing in his gaze. “Don’t worry. I’m not going to use this on you,” he assured the quaking toon. “I’m going to use it to try and erase part of the binding circle so I can get you out, though you might want to stay over there so you don’t get splashed. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

That calmed Bendy down considerably, and he watched as Henry carefully used the chemical to erase the symbols on the floor until he was satisfied that there was a big enough gap to get Bendy out safely before looking up at the toon. “You ready?” the animator asked, holding out a hand. 

Bendy nodded and allowed his creator to pick him up and carry him over the patch of wood still wet with the ink-remover. He was terrified of the stuff and didn’t even want to think about touching it again. At least Henry made him feel safe in his arms. The toon couldn’t remember the last time he had been carried like this. Perhaps it had been before he was taken from the cartoons and forced into this world against his will. Perhaps one of the other toons had done something like this at some point after the torture sessions, wanting to make him feel better after another round of pure agony. He couldn’t tell you, and he honestly didn’t care. What mattered was that Henry hadn’t run when he got the chance. The animator had stayed, despite his chance to run and leave him there, and that was all Bendy needed right then. He cuddled closer to Henry’s chest, earning a chuckle out of the old animator.

“You’re just an overgrown toddler, aren’t ya?” Henry joked, smiling at the toon. 

Bendy said nothing, just content to stay where he was. 

That is until Sammy’s voice came on the speaker again:

“Who are you? What do you want?” There was what sounded like a growl that ripped through the speaker before Sammy spoke again. “Stay back! I am the demon’s prophet! My lord! Save me! My lord--AAAAAAAAAAGH!” 

A fearsome roar sounded through the speaker system before going silent, and Henry and Bendy knew exactly what it meant: 

RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN ** _RUN_**!

They stumbled through the passage leading away from the ritual room, slashing at every board in their way until they were just at an ink-filled corridor leading to a doorway and they could catch their breath.

“I think… we’re safe… for now…” Henry huffed, leaning against the wall. He really was getting too old for this. 

_“What… was that?”_ Bendy asked. _“What the heck… killed Sammy?”_

“I don’t know…” Henry admitted, “but I think I have a hunch, and it’s not good.” 

Bendy didn’t answer. He was too busy being petrified by the beast rising out of the ink, baring pristine white fangs and revealing a golden glow in the back of her pitch-black throat. 

Henry noticed what the toon was staring at just as the beast roared and lunged at them. He grabbed Bendy’s arm and yanked him out of the way just in time for the beast to snap her jaws where the demon had been standing and the two began running. 

_“Please tell me that_ **_thing_ ** _wasn’t your hunch!!”_ Bendy yelled over the roar of the beast entering the hall behind them. 

“I would, but then I would be lying!” Henry replied as he dodged around a board that if tripped on would have spelled his end. 

_“How the heck did that thing follow us?!”_ Bendy exclaimed. _“I thought we left her on the first floor!”_

“This is Joey Drew Studios!” Henry reasoned. “Nothing in this studio stays where it’s supposed to.” He was silent for a second as he processed the toon’s statement. “How do you know it’s a her?”

 _“Her voice! She’s roaring threats at us and it’s quite clear she’s a girl,”_ Bendy said as he jumped inhumanly high to avoid the said beast’s gigantic jaws. _“How do we get away from her?!”_

“We keep running until we find something to put some distance between us and that beast,” Henry told him. 

Bendy jumped out of the way of another snap. _“She finds that term offensive, you know,”_ he told Henry. 

“Of course I know,” Henry snarked sarcastically. “I know because I hear something other than roaring at my back.” 

They rounded a corner to find a door up ahead. 

“Through there!” Henry shouted. “If we get through that door, she shouldn’t be able to follow. She’s too big.” 

_“Okay! That sounds good!”_ Bendy agreed as he ran just a little faster. He didn’t want to be beast chow. 

Right as the duo got through the door and Henry was about to slam it shut, the beast let out a piercing roar and a jet of golden fire at the door. Henry barely got the door closed in time to avoid a scorched animator flambe, breath quick from fear. 

“She breathes fire…” he muttered. “She breathes fire… We are so dead… _So_ dead…” 

_“She_ **_what_** _?!”_ Bendy exclaimed. _“We are_ **_so dead_ ** _the next time she sees us…”_

“She isn’t just a beast…” Henry breathed as he sat down. “She’s a flipping _dragon_ … a fire breathing _dragon_ …”

 _“What the heck is a_ **_dragon_** _?”_ Bendy asked. 

“Giant fire-breathing lizard with wings,” Henry said simply as he stood up, finally able to calm his beating heart. “They’re pretty much unbeatable.” 

_“That’s just peachy,”_ Bendy growled as he followed Henry into the next room and away from the flimsy piece of wood keeping the dragon from them. _“We can’t even beat the dang thing!”_

“Look on the bright side,” Henry said tiredly. “We made it, didn’t we?” 

Suddenly, an empty soup-can rolled into the room, making the duo jump. 

_“Who’s there?”_ Bendy asked shakily. _“We know you’re there. Come out and show yourself.”_

The lupine face of who Henry had learned on previous loops was Daniel “Buddy” Lewek the Boris toon peaked around the corner, staring at the demon with obvious fear. He was about to run when Henry stopped him. 

“Please, Buddy,” Henry began, “don’t run. Bendy won’t hurt you. We just need a place to hide and rest.” 

_“Not necessarily in that order,”_ Bendy added. He was absolutely exhausted from the binding circle and running from the dragon and didn’t know if he could keep going for very long.

Buddy looked at the two of them before stepping out into the open and signing something with his hands, which startled Henry. He didn’t know Buddy could sign! The old animator was about to say that he didn’t understand sign language when Bendy signed the same sequence back with an addon, surprising Henry again. When did they learn sign language? 

Whatever they had signed, it calmed Buddy down significantly and the Boris gestured for them to follow him before leading them to his safehouse and into the back room. He signed again and Bendy translated that Buddy unfortunately only had one extra bed. 

“That’s okay,” Henry said. “Bendy and I can share a bed. You don’t mind, do you, Bendy?” 

_“Not at all,”_ Bendy replied, already sitting on the bed. 

Henry smiled and sat down next to him before they began the slow process of making themselves comfortable on the one-person bed. It took a while, but eventually, they ended up with their arms wrapped around each other, making Buddy smile as the wolf clambered into his hammock and watched the duo fall into a peaceful sleep, unaware of the changes that would come with the dawn.

* * *

 **Art of the day:**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So. You met Cora. And Illusion the angry dragon, not to be confused with Puff the magic dragon. Those two are important. And Bendy's description of Jack's voice. Basically, if I feel the need to expand upon the details of the game, it's important. I'm not a noisy writer. Details are only details if they're needed. 
> 
> Sign language is very important in this studio. It has to do with the colored ones, so keep an eye on anyone who can sign. Henry will ask about it next chapter, don't worry. 
> 
> And shout out to timecats whose thoughtful note gave me the motivation to persevere through the second chapter of Bendy and the Ink Machine. Thank you for continuing to be an inspiration and I suggest you guys read her story, Ties To The Ink, next. 
> 
> I'll try to get another chapter out soon. Thank you for reading! And PLEASE tell me what you think in the comment section below. I want to know if you all like this story and if I'm doing it right.
> 
> _ \- TheInkedFantasy _
> 
> Henry: "Fantasy, what are you doing?"  
>  Trying to disappear into a puddle of ink.  
>  Bendy: _"Why?"_  
>  Because it's a cool thing to do. And Illusion and Jet and Bendy can do it.  
>  Illusion: _"That's because we're **toons** , Fantasy, and you're not. You're just the writer making our lives a literal heck."_  
>  ... No comment.  
>  Jet: "Wha' do ya mean, _no comment_? Yer not gonna try and defend yerself? And ah thought you was a fighter."  
>  Oh, be quiet, Jet. Don't you start with me about honor. Where do you live again?  
>  ?: "You leave my sister be! It's not Jet's fault she lives in a chasm! She doesn't fit anywhere else!"  
>  You guys are infuriating--Are they listening? Well then turn it off, dang it!
> 
> _This recording has ended._


	4. The Road To Healing... And Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmares plague our little ones and a new toon comes out into the light properly for the first time. Things are changing more and more...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi there! I know this is kinda fast for an update, but I'm at that stage where I have so much planned for future loops of this story that the first one is a little tedious so I'm trying to get out the background info as fast as I can in good quality so we can get to the fun stuff.  
>  Bendy: "Which is Fantasy for 'stuff the cast hates.'"  
>  What is your problem today? You weren't this snarky last week when you agreed to be in this story!  
>  Bendy: "I hadn't read the script last week. Seriously? Nightmares and torture? What is your problem?!"  
>  Nightmares and torture... That's a reasonable situation to put these guys in, right?  
>  Bendy: “No, it’s not. The only part I like is being held by Henry.”  
>  Henry: "I'd be happy if you stopped attacking my toons, Fantasy."  
>  Oh, be quiet. No one asked you two. Besides, you'll love the ending!  
>  Henry: "I hope so because I'm sick of torture and repeated loops."  
>  Eh heh heh heh... Um... Enjoy the floof while it lasts!  
>  Henry: "What is _that_ supposed to mean?!"  
>  Bendy: "She's not listening to us anymore." *sigh* "I guess we have to go get in our places now. See y'all later!"
> 
> _This recording has ended._
> 
> **EDIT 5-18-20:** Since I have finally figured out how to get my art in this story using AO3 formats, I put a drawing I did of the ending at the end of the chapter. Hope you enjoy!

It was just supposed to be another day in the studio. Bendy was hiding with his good friend, Mirage, a female toon with fox ears and a tail, but that wasn’t the oddest thing about her. She had glowing blue piecut eyes that lit up the darkness in front of her and earned her the nickname of The Colored One among the inhabitants of the studio. She also was Bendy’s only friend after the other five perfect toons disappeared. Bendy had a hunch that Mirage knew more about their whereabouts than she was letting on, but he left it be. If she was hiding them, they were safer than anywhere else. Mirage would make sure of it. 

They were hiding in the office district of the bottom floor, trying to listen to what Joey was doing so that they could avoid him, but they had stopped when they heard what Joey was muttering. 

“Yes,” the feared Master murmured. “Yes, this will draw him in, and I will finally have the last piece of the puzzle. I just have to convince him that it’s a letter from that idiot Director, and he’ll come running. The Creator is so predictable.” 

Mirage looked at the demon next to her. “What do you think he’s talking about?” 

Bendy’s gaze went from the door to the toon looking up at him. _“I don’t know,”_ he admitted. _“The only Creator I know is Henry, my creator. Do you think…”_

Mirage’s eyes went wide. “Do you think he’s trying to trap the Creator here too?” 

_“I do… I’m not sure whether I want him to succeed or not,”_ Bendy mused. _“It would be nice to see another friendly face, but then again, how long would it stay friendly?”_

“That’s a good point,” Mirage agreed. Then a light bulb lit up above her head as her eyes and smile widened, making Bendy chuckle. He loved how toon logic was so natural to her. But then again, that might have been because her soul was only ten years old when she was turned. 

“What if we went and waited for him to show up?” she suggested. “That way we can help him stay himself, and he can help us fight the Master.” 

Bendy mulled that over. Staying on one floor would make it harder to hide from the Master of the studio, Mr. Joey Drew, but having the Creator as an ally would be invaluable. Besides, was it wrong that Bendy wanted to feel his Creator’s love for him? 

_“That’s… a good idea,”_ he finally said. _“We need to make our way up to the first floor then.”_

Mirage smiled. “I knew you’d like that idea. Come on. We can use one of my portals.” 

She walked out of range of Joey’s office, her quiet feet mimicking the quietness of the fox she claimed as her secondary form. After she was sure they wouldn’t be attacked by the mutilated Butcher Gang, her ink shifted until she reached up to only about Bendy’s knee (as Bendy was still the twisted demon and not the little devil darling), taking the form of a black fox with glowing turquoise piecut eyes. She then padded up to the shadows in the corner of the room and touched them with a single paw, causing them to transform into her signature shadow portal. The toon fox turned and yipped at Bendy. _Are you coming or what?_ it meant. 

Bendy nodded and followed her through to the first floor, in a room a little ways from the ink machine, and their hideout on this floor. The door was always locked as neither of them had to unlock the door to get out, and as most doors were locked on this floor, Joey never tried to force it open, so he never found the comfy little couch and bacon soup stash they had there. And then there was Mirage’s favorite radio, one that played so many songs that seemed to reflect the life in the studio, but they couldn’t tell exactly when some of the events actually happened. She made sure only to play it when she knew no one was around, and Bendy never stopped her because the music made her smile. He loved it when she smiled. She didn’t do it often. But then again, no one did. 

They got comfortable in their little safe house and waited for the Creator to show. Something told the duo that he would come, that he was _meant_ to come, that he would set everyone free. They watched as the Master left to mail something, most likely a letter to Henry inviting him here to his doom, and then watched for Henry to come. They waited for weeks until they eventually realized something. 

“He’s not coming,” Mirage murmured, sharpening her blade as they watched the door, sitting in the hallway just outside it. 

_“Yes, he is,”_ Bendy argued, renewing the debate they had gone over a hundred times by now. _“He’ll come. He won’t leave us. He’s Henry. He’s the Creator. He’s not like the Master. He loves us.”_

Mirage raised an eyebrow, skeptical of her friend’s faith. “He doesn’t even know you guys exist. What reason does he have to come here?”

 _“He loved this place more than anyone. I found a few of his recordings lying around from the earlier days. Sure, he was overworked by the Master, but he loved drawing us,”_ Bendy told her, refusing to believe that Henry wasn’t coming. 

“So…” came a voice from behind the duo, startling them, “it seems like I’m not the only one waiting for the Creator to show.” 

The two toons whipped around, finding Joey Drew standing behind them with a cruel smile. 

“J-Joey!” Mirage stammered. “Wh-when did you show up?” 

_“How long have you been listening?”_ Bendy asked at the same time, fear evident in his voice. 

“Long enough,” Joey replied. “Long enough to know that I have two very naughty toons on my hands, trying to betray me to the liar and traitor that is Henry Stein.” 

_“Henry’s not a traitor or a liar! He’s my creator and he’s nice and happy and loving and better than you’ll ever be!”_ Bendy yelled. 

“Stop, Bendy!” Mirage hissed. “Just stop! We’re already in trouble as it is! Stop making it worse!” 

“Oh, I am fully aware of Bendy’s opinion of me,” Joey told her. “And of his opinion of Henry, the one who left him behind for a girl, the one who didn’t care to come back, the one who left him to face me alone. Now, that wasn’t very nice, was it? Is that something a kind and loving creator would do?” 

Bendy faltered for a second. What Joey was saying _made sense_ in a twisted way. Why would Henry leave him and the others to face Joey alone? 

“Henry doesn’t even know they exist, ya dill weed!” Mirage retorted. “If he knew, he’d come running to save them. I know he would. That’s what good _parents_ do. They protect their _kids_.”

Bendy nodded, his faith in his creator strengthened by his friend’s impromptu speech. 

Joey considered that. “I’ll keep that in mind. Perhaps if the first letter doesn’t work, I could send him pictures of his toons in distress. That _would_ bring him running.” His grin widened, showing the devilish side of him. “But for me to do that, I’d first have to take pictures of his toons in trouble. Good thing I know where an almost perfect pair of toons are at this very moment.” 

Mirage and Bendy froze for a second, their fear increasing tenfold as they processed that statement. Mirage reacted first, shifting into a fox and trying to run, but Joey grabbed her using the ink, causing her to freeze. Bendy knew she was afraid of the ink just like Susie was, scared of being lost to it again, so he surged forward to try and help her, but Joey trapped him too. 

“I think it’s time we got to work,” Joey said maliciously, his eyes pitch-black. 

The man who was the sole greatest source of fear in the entire studio dragged his captives down to the bottom floor, where there was a replica of the first floor. Taking them to the little theater, he walked to the locked door with the claw marks on it, marking the entrance to the dreaded “Actor’s Quarters,” the prison of all perfect toons. The hallway behind it held a series of rooms, each door marked with the name of a perfect toon. Mirage and Bendy’s cells were at the very end of the hall, and they avoided their rooms like the plague, but they couldn’t avoid being trapped in them again if Joey was literally dragging them inside. 

Once he had reached Mirage’s door, Joey put the fox toon inside the room on the crate in the middle of the room before filling the room up with ink to the lip of the crate so she couldn’t escape. For reasons none of them knew, Mirage didn’t cast a shadow, and without a portal to escape through and a deep fear of the ink keeping her from trying to swim to freedom, Mirage was trapped. 

Bendy’s heart broke as he heard those panic-stricken whimpers coming from the toon as Joey shut the door. This was one of the reasons he hated Joey so terribly. He didn’t have any problem using their worst fears against them. 

“Now that we know Miss Foxen won’t get away,” Joey said with the closest he would ever get to happiness, “let’s get you situated. I may not know where the other five true toons are, but I think you’ll do just fine to draw Henry in, my little devil. But first, let’s get you on-model so it will be actually convincing.” 

Joey took a large syringe and plunged the needle into Bendy’s side and began drawing out ink. Bendy screamed as his form shrunk, pain washing through him in waves. When Joey was finished, a little dancing demon lay curled up on the floor, sobbing from pain and fear. 

“Now, now, you’ll have your Creator soon,” Joey sneered as he picked up the demon and strapped him to a table. “Isn’t that what you wanted?” 

Bendy whimpered, too terrified to say anything. He didn’t know what Joey had planned, but he knew it would hurt. 

Joey turned to a nearby table and picked up a bottle before turning to the fearful toon again. When Bendy saw the label, he tried desperately to get away from his torturer. This wasn’t the first time he’d seen acetone, and he knew what it did to toons, what it would do to _him_. 

“Now, now, the less you struggle the faster it’ll go,” Joey told him, uncorking the bottle. “Funny, how dangerous a simple chemical is to you toons. I never get over watching you suffer as you melt away slowly. Good thing I have ink ready for when we’re done. I’ll need you as a hostage to use against Henry.” 

Bendy began pleading with Joey to not do this, fear predominant in his piecut eyes behind the tears, but Joey didn’t register his cries and began pouring acetone on the demon toon’s arm. 

That was when Bendy really started screaming. Oh, it hurt. Gosh, it hurt! Waves of agony rolled through him as the acetone ate through the ink in his hand and arm like acid through flesh. It hurt so much! He just wanted it to stop. Please, make it stop! 

Knowing that Joey wouldn’t stop even if he asked, he began crying out for the one person he knew would help him in his pain-filled haze. He started calling for Henry to save him, for his Creator to make the pain stop, for his beloved father to take him away from the agony and torture. 

But he didn’t come, and Joey didn’t stop. The Master kept going and going and going and going. This was it. He was going to melt away. He was going to die—

“Bendy! Bendy, wake up!” 

Bendy’s eyes shot open to find Henry and Buddy Boris standing above him with worried expressions. He looked around for Joey and the acetone, but when he didn’t see it, he relaxed significantly. Then he realized just who was holding him and burst into tears, clutching his Creator’s shirt in his gloved hands. He had come. He had come to save him. He was safe. Joey couldn’t hurt him anymore. Henry was here. Henry had him. Henry was going to help him. 

He was free from the Master’s torture at last.

“Bendy, what’s wrong?” Henry asked as he held the demon close. He briefly whispered to Buddy to please get them some food before diverting all of his attention to the sobbing toon in his arms. “No one is going to hurt you. I promise. I’m not leaving you. Just tell me what’s wrong? I want to help.” 

But Bendy couldn’t get anything out other than a repeated, _“Thank you… Thank you…”_ as he buried his face in Henry’s chest, inky tears of gratitude streaming down his cheeks.

“Oh, Bendy,” Henry said assuringly as he clutched the demon close to him. “It’s all right. It was just a bad dream.” 

A bad dream. It had been a bad dream. Henry _had_ come to the studio, and Joey hadn’t found Mirage. It was okay. He was safe. 

“No one is going to hurt you,” Henry repeated as he took a bowl of soup from Buddy to give to Bendy. “Here. I’m sure you must be hungry between the binding circle and running from the dragon and terrifying nightmares.” 

Bendy turned slightly to look at the bowl. It looked inviting, and he _was_ hungry, but he didn’t dare let go of Henry for fear of the nightmare coming true. He didn’t want to go back to the last cell in the Actor’s Quarters and the pain that filled that room again. Not again. Not after what had happened the last time he had been in there for real. 

“Not hungry?” Henry asked, concerned. 

Bendy shook his head, not trusting his voice. 

“Do you want to talk about it?” Henry asked, referring to the nightmare. 

Bendy shook his head again. He didn’t trust himself at the moment. He just wanted Henry to hold him for the rest of eternity. 

As if he could read Bendy’s mind, Henry looked up at Buddy and asked, “Could you give us a moment? I want to see if maybe just some time alone will make him feel better.” 

Buddy nodded and stepped back into the main part of the safe house, leaving two bowls of soup in the bedroom. 

As he started to rock the demon in his arms back and forth, Henry started humming a soft tune as Bendy started to slowly calm down, his tears slowing to a stop before he looked up at Henry. Bendy froze and rubbed his eyes before looking up again. His creator’s eyes were green. So why did it look like they were gold for a moment? 

“Are you sure you’re not hungry?” Henry checked. 

_“I am…”_ Bendy replied, accepting the bowl and downing it in one go. That was better. 

Henry, on the other hand, didn’t eat, obviously too worried about Bendy to even try. “That must have been one heck of a nightmare,” he said finally. 

Bendy nodded, staying close to Henry, his one comfort. 

“Do you want to tell me about it?” 

_“N-no… It’s… still a little too real. Maybe later,”_ he said quietly. 

Henry nodded. He understood. He had nightmares from the war sometimes. He had been, after all, drafted into WWII a few years after he left the studio. It wasn’t something you forgot easily. 

The old animator looked up at the hammock and thought of something. “I don’t think Buddy will mind if we use his hammock as a rocking chair. Come on, Bendy,” Henry said as he picked up the toon that was as large as him and helped him into the hammock before getting in himself. Through a series of careful movements, Henry began rocking the hammock, allowing Bendy to lean closer into his creator’s embrace, his eyelids slowly closing… 

No! He couldn’t fall asleep! He couldn’t fall back into that nightmare again! 

“It’s okay, Bendy,” Henry said as if he could read Bendy’s thoughts. “I’m sorry I left you. I went into the next room with Buddy to play a game of cards when I woke up because I didn’t want to wake you. Seems that was a mistake as you didn’t start crying out until after I left. I promise I won’t leave your side this time.” 

Ah. That explained it. Now that he thought about it, the first time he’d slept without nightmares plaguing his every resting moment was when he laid down next to Henry after the animator passed out in the ritual circle. It seemed like his creator had the unique ability to chase away the terrors. That made Bendy want to stay close to him even more. Henry was safety in human form, and he couldn’t let it go. 

Slowly, knowing that he would be safe as long as Henry was near, the demon closed his eyes and fell asleep to Henry’s soft baritone singing of a place called home. 

A few minutes later, Buddy walked in to check on them and found the duo fast asleep in the hammock. A smile crossed the wolf’s muzzle as he left. He’d leave them be for now. He had a supply run to do anyway. 

# ⋯

When Bendy woke up again, it was to find that he was cuddled in Henry’s arms, the animator fast asleep. He smiled, happy to be in his creator’s arms, before he realized that Henry looked bigger than usual. Had Henry grown? 

He shrugged. It wasn’t anything big, he thought. He curled up in Henry’s arms, content to fall back asleep in this perfect situation, and suddenly something brushed his face. He opened his eyes to see a pointed tail. 

Wait… 

He stared at the tail and yelped when it moved when he wanted it to. Since when did he have a tail?!

Henry stirred, awoken by the toon’s cry of surprise. “What is it, Bendy?” Henry asked sluggishly as he opened his eyes halfway. Then he actually looked the demon over and his eyes widened. “Bendy?” 

“Y-yes, Henry?” Bendy replied before covering his mouth in surprise. His voice… it didn’t sound distorted anymore! It was… on-model!! 

“I think… you shrunk,” Henry chuckled, gesturing to the height of the toon in his arms. “And gained a tail.” 

“I… I did, didn’t I?” Bendy agreed, realizing that Henry must have fixed him again. 

Buddy stuck his head in the doorway and signed, **What happened? Why are you guys yelling?**

“It’s nothing, Buddy,” Bendy told him. “Henry just fixed me, that’s all.” 

Buddy stared at Henry before looking back at the demon with a hopeful look. **Do you think… Could he fix me? My voice?**

“I… don’t know. I don’t think he does it intentionally. Both times he’s done it so far, we’ve both been asleep. I don’t think we know how it works.” 

Henry looked down at the demon in his arms. “You know what he’s saying?” 

“He’s _signing_ , and yes,” Bendy replied. “An old friend taught me how to sign. We used it to talk when we were trying to be silent. Didn’t realize just how useful it was.” 

Buddy’s ears perked up when he heard that. **An old friend? You wouldn’t happen to mean The Colored One, would you?**

“Yeah, actually. You know her?” Bendy asked. 

“Who are we talking about?” Henry asked, confused. 

**The Colored One is…** Buddy started to sign a reply but then remembered that Henry couldn’t understand a lick of sign language and sighed.

“It’s okay, Buddy,” Bendy told him. “I’ll tell him. The Colored One is a toon who likes to keep an eye on everyone. For some reason, she knows sign language and, knowing its worth, taught it to all her allies. We can identify each other by signing a series of code words, which is why Buddy trusted me once I signed the responding code words. We’ve been told by the Colored One that we can trust anyone who knows that phrase because they’re friends with her.” 

“I… see,” Henry said slowly, processing that. “Well, I suppose that makes sense. A code word to identify potential allies and avoid enemies.” 

“Exactly!” 

“Man, you guys are smart cookies, you know that?” Henry said. The way he said it didn’t sound condescending or surprised, but as if he was proud of that fact, and that made Bendy smile. 

The animator was silent for a moment before speaking again. “Do you two mind if I ask you both something?” 

“Not at all, Henry!” Bendy said cheerfully. 

**I don’t mind,** Buddy agreed. 

“Can you tell me what happened here? Why everyone is like this?” Henry asked hesitantly, almost as if he didn’t expect an answer. 

The atmosphere turned somber and dark in that room as the question sank in and dredged up the memories of the past.

Bendy said nothing, instead huddling closer to Henry’s chest, not wanting to remember the horrors they had gone through to get to this point. Suddenly, his mind told him it was completely worth all that pain and torture if it had brought him here, to his Creator’s embrace, to a place where nothing could hurt him anymore, and he realized he almost agreed. All that pain was nothing compared to the peace and love he felt in Henry’s arms. Here he was safe, and he didn’t want the terrors of the past to infect the one place he felt safe. 

Buddy, on the other hand, left the room for a few minutes before coming back with a notebook and handing it to Henry. There was a message written in ink on the page: 

**_You want to know what happened here, Henry?_ **

**_You want to know why we’re all like this?_ **

**_Find the Colored One._ **

**_She knows the story._ **

**_She’ll tell you._ **

**_She’ll tell you e v e r y t h i n g . . ._ **

The ink on the tail of the _g_ trailed off the page, as if the ink was trying to escape, like it didn’t want to give this message, like it didn’t want Henry to see this. 

Bendy shivered, his tail curling around Henry’s arm to assure him the old animator was still there, knowing what that message meant. Mirage might not have been there for the whole story, but she took care of everyone, shared their pain, listened to their stories. She cared when no one else did. She kept people from falling to the puddles, healed those who were hurt, hid those who were running from the monsters of the studio, comforted those who were frightened and restored hope to those who despaired. 

In a way, she was like his creator, Bendy thought. 

Henry looked the message over, processing it. “Was it… Was it really that bad?” he asked finally, looking over the two toons. 

They nodded. 

“I… I see. You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” he assured the toons, inviting Buddy into the hammock with them so that he could comfort them both. 

Bendy sighed in relief and contentment. He just wanted to stay here forever, in his creator’s arms, where the darkness of the studio could never touch him again.

Buddy hesitantly climbed into the hammock, but all his reluctance washed away as Henry extended his fatherly embrace to the human-turned-toon. It reminded the wolf of his mother and his grandfather, and suddenly his humanity showed through for the first time in what felt like years. Big inky tears streamed down his face as he buried his muzzle in Henry’s chest, memories flooding back of who he had been. He wasn’t Boris, he was Buddy, and that was never going to change, not as long as Henry was there to remind him, he knew. Henry was safe, could bring back even the most lost of souls back to the light, and that made Buddy trust him and Bendy even more. Yes, this was safe—in fact, it felt like _home_ —and he didn’t want to let go of this feeling ever again. 

Knowing that the child-like toons in his arms were on their way to healing from their many, many wounds inside and out, Henry began rocking the hammock again as he began singing softly and the two toons slowly but surely fell asleep in his arms, their tears having been shed for the past and their hearts now turned to the future: 

_“I'm saying goodbye to the skyline,_

_Hello to the sweet pines._

_Gonna see you later street lights,_

_I'm headed back to tree lines,_

_To free time and starry nights,_

_To bonfires and fireflies._

_Pack your bags, it's time to go,_

_'Cause we got brighter lights back_ **_home_** _.”_

__

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There. Now that wasn't so bad, was it?  
>  Bendy: "I guess not..."  
>  Mirage: "And they finally get to see my face and not have weird references of me being around!"  
>  Henry: "Wait, you were watching us the whole time?!"  
>  Mirage: *smiles cheekily* "Maybe..."  
>  All right you three, out of my writer's room and my author's notes. Anyhoo, a couple of things. First, the song that Henry sings is _Back Home_ by Owl City. Now, I know that this song isn't from this time period but this is my universe and I can do what I want with it cuz who cares. Besides, it's a good song. Another one I think fits this game is _Bird With A Broken Wing_ by Owl City. I'll let you listen to it and figure out why. I'd put it in the story, but then I'd have to figure out how the heck Henry got his hands on an electric guitar and a soundboard. XD  
>  Second, that quote from Boris about the Colored One knowing the story is actually what sparked this fanfic. I came up with it about two months ago while I was drawing Mirage and then tried to figure out how to make a fic with it in it. I hope you like what came out of it so far. Third, I am slowly integrating my OC's in here as they're kinda important to the flow of the story from here on out. Now you've been properly introduced to Mirage, you've heard from her sister who will be properly introduced as Jet in Chapter 4 of the game, and we already know the beast—  
>  Henry: "It would have been NICE if you had WARNED US ABOUT HER!!"  
>  That's no fun! Now, we're about to head into Chapter 3 of the game, so stay tuned for the next update.  
>  Sammy: "Did someone say tuned?"  
>  Henry: "Yeah, Fantasy did. How are you alive? You were eaten by the dragon last chapter!"  
>  Sammy: "I was? Well, you see—"  
>  THAT'S ENOUGH OUT OF YOU GUYS. You will NOT be giving ANY SPOILERS TODAY!! OUT OUT OUT OUT!!!  
>  Bendy: "All right! We're going! We're going!"  
>  Mirage: "There's no reason to be moody! Geez, you're acting like Joey when someone tries to see his new episode scripts before they're done."  
>  I SAID OUT AND NO SPOILERS!!!  
>  ...  
>  Finally, peace and quiet.  
>  ...  
>  Hold on...  
>  BENDY!!!! WHERE IS MY SCRIPT!?!?!?!
> 
> _This recording has ended and Fantasy has left to kill a certain dancing demon for stealing her script for the tenth time this week._
> 
> _Thank you for reading._


	5. The Twisted Angel's Debut

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> She's quite a gal... I don't think Bendy agrees though.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And it's another chapter! This time we start chapter 3!  
>  Henry: "Can we PLEASE skip the fetch quests and just drop the elevator already?"  
>  No. We cannot. Sorry.  
>  Bendy: "You're not sorry! You're not sorry at all!"  
>  No, I'm not, but that doesn't mean I can't release another chapter! Twenty-two kudos, nine subscriptions, and two bookmarks ain't too shabby for just starting out! On with the fic! (And don't think I forgot about you taking my script, you little jerk! I'll get you for that once the episode is over.)  
>  ????: "Wait, what about--"
> 
> _This recording has ended._

It had been almost a week since the two toons had grown close to Henry, and Henry didn’t mind sleeping with them both so that their nightmares stayed far away. The old animator would do anything for them if it meant they felt safe. 

Bendy and Henry had just gotten up on their sixth day in the safe house to find that Buddy was already up. 

“I bet he went on another supply run while we were asleep,” Bendy yawned. 

“Yeah,” Henry agreed, “probably, though I doubt they’re just supply runs. You don’t need to do three supplies runs in six days. That’s just overkill. I think he’s watching out for the dragon, making sure she doesn’t catch up to us.” 

“Could she really find us?” Bendy asked as Henry helped him out of the hammock the trio shared. 

“She’s a dragon. According to legend, they’re the fiercest hunters with the most heightened senses that they use to their advantage, not to mention their indestructible scale armor. If she sees you, smells you, hears you, or anything of the like to pick up your trail, you’re as good as hers. And they’re supposed to be really smart too, so they can track their prey for long distances,” Henry began, remembering the stories he’d heard about dragons. “Honestly, I’d rather face a demon than a beast like that.” 

“Why is that?” Bendy asked curiously. 

“Because I know I can tickle a demon into submission,” Henry laughed as he began doing just that to his little devil darling. 

“Th-that’s cheating!” Bendy laughed, trying and failing to wriggle away. “And I don’t think you can do that to _every_ demon.” 

“Probably not,” Henry agreed. “Just my little darling.” 

That made Bendy beam with happiness. Henry had started calling him little nicknames more and more lately, and Bendy loved it. 

“Let’s go talk to Buddy. There’s something I have to tell you both,” Henry said as he led the demon toon into the main room of the safehouse where Buddy was waiting. 

Buddy was sitting at a table where a game of Go Fish was waiting to be resumed. The trio was tied for winning the card games they played, but Henry had been hoping to pull ahead before they fell asleep. He, unfortunately, wasn’t able to. 

“Heya, Buddy!” Henry said cheerfully. “How are you this morning?” 

**Pretty good,** Buddy signed, and Henry smiled in response. He had been picking up sign language from the two toons quite easily, almost as if he had known it before, and he needed only to remember. Unfortunately, the old animator couldn’t remember where he had learned it from, and that worried the two toons. Ink altered memories and they didn’t know how much exposure Henry had had with the liquid. 

“That’s great! Well, now that you’re both up and about, there’s something I want to talk about.” Henry made sure he had the attention of both toons before continuing, saying, “I think it’s time we left the safe house looking for that exit.” 

They both stared at him before Bendy tried and failed to jump up and feel the animator’s forehead.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Bendy asked once he had given up on checking the old man’s temperature. 

“Yes, I’m fine,” Henry sighed. No one said this was going to be easy, he thought. “I’m just saying that we should try and actually escape the studio. I mean, eventually, we’re going to run out of food, and Buddy can’t keep going farther and farther for supplies. Eventually, he’s going to run into something dangerous, and I’m not going to let that happen. And besides, how long do you really think we can hide in here with that dragon on our tail?” 

Hesitantly, Buddy signed, **He** ** _does_** **have a point…**

“But we don’t know what’s out there!” Bendy objected. 

_I do,_ Henry thought but didn’t say. Instead, he reasoned, “Come on. Don’t you two want to see the sun again? The sky? Feel the grass beneath your feet? And Buddy, I _know_ you must be missing sugar. Wouldn’t it be nice to eat something other than bacon soup for once?”

Buddy thought about that, but his look said everything. He wanted to get out, and he was willing to risk safety if it meant regaining freedom. **All right, I’ll leave with you, Henry.**

“What?!” Bendy exclaimed, his eyes bulging out of his head in surprise as they used to in the cartoons. “Are you both insane?!” 

“No, we’re not insane, Bendy,” Henry told him. “Have you ever been outside?” 

Bendy toed the floor with his shoe, not looking up at his creator. “No… Not unless you count the cartoons, but I don’t really remember them.” 

Henry nodded. “That’s what I figured. You see, Buddy and I come from the outside, and we miss it. That’s our goal: to get back to the outside. It’s funny, the things you take for granted until they’re gone.” 

**Like food,** Buddy agreed wistfully, **and rain. I miss the rain. And flowers. And my mom and my grandfather. I hope to find them if they’re even still alive.**

“That’s what I want to show you, Bendy,” Henry said as he got down on one knee so that he was at the same level as the toon. “I want to show you all the wonderful things you’re missing from being trapped down here. Remember? I promised to show you the sky and sugar and _freedom_. I don’t plan on breaking that promise, no matter how long it takes to get us there.” 

Bendy looked at Henry, unsure. “Do you really think we can get out?” he asked quietly, showing Henry just how damaged the little toon’s spirit was. 

“I do,” Henry replied, “but we can’t get there unless we leave the safe house. Come on, my little devil darling, what do you say?” 

After a moment of thought, Bendy’s curiosity won out. He wanted to know what was so wonderful about the outside that his companions would risk everything to get back there. 

“Okay,” Bendy agreed finally, “but you know that once we leave, we can’t come back.” 

“I know, Bendy,” Henry said. “Believe me, I know.” 

Buddy snapped his fingers, getting the attention of the other two, before signing, **Well, if we are going, we’re not going on an empty stomach!**

Henry laughed. “Yeah, that’s a good idea. Food sounds great right now, honestly. I’ll go find some soup.” 

Once Henry had left the room, Bendy rounded on Buddy. 

“Is it just me, or does Henry know something that he’s not telling us?” the two-and-a-half foot toon asked the wolf. 

Buddy nodded. **I asked him about it once while you were asleep, but he tried to avoid the topic like the plague! It’s almost as if he’s actively trying not to tell us!**

“I’ll see if I can squeeze it out of him later,” Bendy told him. “I mean, what if it’s life or death kind of information?! We need to know!” 

“Need to know what?” Henry asked as he reentered the room with three cans of soup. 

“Nothing,” Bendy replied immediately and Buddy nodded in agreement. 

Henry eyed them both for a moment before shrugging it off and starting on the soup, allowing Bendy and Buddy to share one more conspiratorial nod before waiting for Henry to finish making the soup. 

After they had all eaten, Henry grabbed a few things so that they could be ready to leave, since once they left, there would be no coming back. Once he had given Buddy his favorite bone, the trio left the safe house for the final time and pressed onward. 

They weren’t ten feet down the hall before they came upon a peculiar object. It looked like a sepia-toned Porta Potty (minus the toilet) with a strange oval symbol on the door. The sign above the door named the structure as a _Miracle Station_. 

“What the heck is this?” Bendy asked as he played with the door. 

“It’s a Miracle Station, Bendy,” Henry replied. 

**They’re for hiding in,** Buddy told the demon. **Things can’t get you while you’re inside. That includes monsters, angels, demons… and dragons.**

“Searchers and the Butcher Gang will also leave you alone if you’re inside one,” Henry added as he continued on. 

Bendy was hard-pressed to catch up with the animator. “How do you know that?” he asked. “We’ve never seen any of the Butcher Gang around, let alone used a Miracle what’s-it in that sort of situation to even have that experience.”

“Later,” Henry replied, not looking down at the toon. 

“No!” Bendy said, running in front of Henry and making him stop. “Not later, now! You have been hiding things from me and Buddy. We can tell! You know a lot more about this place than you should for someone who only just got here a couple of days ago, and don’t write it off as you used to work here because it goes beyond that. Like when we were running from the dragon, both times you knew exactly how to get away from her! Or when we had to do the musical puzzle, you knew that the projector had to be running for the instruments to work! Or with the searcher, you knew that we had to smash him under the crate to get the valve! And what about the searchers outside the sanctuary?! You knew they were there! You have seemed calm during almost every single thing we’ve gotten thrown at us, _too_ calm for someone who’s never been here before, and it just doesn’t add up! Please, just tell us what you’re hiding! We want to help, but we can’t if you’re keeping secrets from us!” 

Henry, surprised at the sudden outburst from the demon toon, looked at Buddy. “Is this how you feel too?”

Buddy nodded. **You’ve been acting really weird, Henry. Ever since you woke me up I’ve been noticing little things. You know my nickname is Buddy, and I have a feeling you know my real name too. It’s all those little things you think we don’t notice but we do, and it adds up to the conclusion that you know more than you’re letting on. Please, we just want to be able to help, so if you know something, please tell us.**

Henry sighed. “Look, we’re heading into Susie’s domain. This isn’t the time or place for this kind of discussion—” 

“And there it is again!” Bendy exclaimed. “How do you know where we’re going if this is the first time we’ve left the safe house?! How do you know that Susie is in charge there?! How do you know who Susie is?! I sure don’t! How do you know these things?!” 

Henry got down on one knee in front of the toon and placed a hand on his shoulder, a quiet exhaustion and… was that fear filling his eyes? “Bendy, would I ask you to carry my ax?” he asked the toon. 

“No,” Bendy replied, not following. “You don’t have one right now. What does that have to do with—” 

“Humor me,” Henry said pleadingly. “If I had one on me right now, would I ask you to carry my ax?”

“No,” Bendy replied, confused as to why Henry had caused the change in subject. “It’s too heavy for me. I’d end up dragging it on the floor after my arms got tired. And besides, you’d be able to use it much better than me. But don’t change the subject—” 

“Just listen for a moment,” Henry interrupted, his voice still calm. “I don’t ask you to carry my ax because it is too heavy for you. You want to know why I seem to know so much. I get it, I do. I would be curious too. But the reason I don’t tell you both is the same reason I don’t ask you to carry my ax; it is too heavy for you right now. You might be able to carry it someday, but you can’t right now, and so I must carry it alone until you are able to carry it with me. Do you understand?” 

“But when will I be strong enough to carry it?” Bendy asked immediately, a tad irritated with this answer. 

Henry chuckled mirthlessly. “By then, I won’t even have to tell you how I know. You will have already experienced it. In the meantime, please, just trust me. I know what I’m doing, and I will keep you safe, Bendy. I promise.” 

“What is that supposed to mean?” Bendy asked, confused and a little worried by how Henry was acting. 

“You’ll see,” was Henry’s only reply before he got up and continued on. 

Buddy and Bendy shared a defeated look. They knew that they would get nothing more out of Henry Stein. Not after the way he had responded to their questioning. 

“What do we do?” Bendy asked the wolf quietly. 

**We keep going and trust that Henry knows what he’s doing,** Buddy signed in reply before moving to follow the old animator, forcing Bendy to keep up. The demon didn’t want to be left behind. Not here. Not in _this_ studio. 

They came to a dark hallway full of mechanical gizmos and Henry grabbed the flashlight on the table. 

“Stay close,” he instructed as he led the way through the hallway. 

Buddy and Bendy wasted no time following his advice, staying near him as he was the only one with a light. All three of them jumped when they heard the scraping of claws on metal and the unmistakable growl of a dragon above them.

“Did you hear that?” Henry asked quietly. 

The two toons shook their heads, acting in denial. 

“Yeah, me neither,” Henry agreed before they kept going. 

Henry put the flashlight away as soon as they got to the other end of the tunnel, only to find that they had seemingly reached a dead end. Right before Bendy was about to start complaining about stupid doors, Henry asked, “Got any ideas, Buddy?” 

Buddy nodded and signed, **I could just go through the vents and open the door for you, but we’d get separated for a little bit afterward until we could meet up again.**

“That’s all right,” Henry nodded in agreement. “Take the flashlight. I don’t think me and Bendy are going to be needing it anymore.” 

Buddy took the flashlight with a quickly signed **thank you** before crawling into the vent. A few minutes later, the door opened, and Henry pressed on, Bendy following quickly after. 

Suddenly, Henry stopped Bendy and got down on his knee in front of the demon. “Bendy, I need you to do something for me,” he said seriously, his expression showing Bendy he meant business. 

“Okay?” Bendy replied, not sure what was going on. 

“I have to do this now because, beyond this point, Susie is listening, but I need you to do whatever I say here,” Henry instructed. “If I say I need to hold you for something, you will let me. If I tell you to stay with Buddy, you will stay with him and not follow me. If I say to get behind me, you get behind me. This is a matter of life and death. You are a perfect toon, and Susie does horrible things to perfect toons, and I will _not_ allow her to do those things to you. She may avoid you because you are a demon, but in the case that doesn’t deter her, I need you to stay close to me. I am not going to lose you to her if it’s the last thing I do. Do you understand me?” 

Bendy, realizing the gravity of the situation, nodded solemnly. 

“Do you promise to do whatever I say here?” Henry repeated. 

“I do,” Bendy replied. 

“Say it to me,” Henry told him, desperation in his gaze. Whatever Henry was trying to protect him from, it scared him badly, and that in turn scared Bendy even more. 

“I promise to follow all of your instructions from here on out,” Bendy said.

Henry’s expression softened significantly as he stood up and let out a sigh of relief. “Thank you. I expect you to hold to that promise, just like I will mine. We will get out, but only if we do this carefully. Now, come on, and stay close. You can explore a little bit in this next room, but don’t leave the room until I do. We’re wandering into the mouth of the beast, and anything we do wrong could end in catastrophic results.” 

“What kind of catastrophic results?” Bendy asked as the duo began walking again. 

“The loss of an ally,” Henry said simply, not looking down, “or your demise. It depends on what we do.”

Bendy stopped and stared at him. “Wait, wait, wait. You mean to tell me that if we don’t do this right, we could lose Buddy?” he asked in alarm.

“I never said any names, but yes, that is a possibility,” Henry confirmed, halting his progress until Bendy was ready to keep going again. “We also have the possibility to gain new ones, whether we awake an old friend stalking the darkness or heal tortured enemies and get them to assist us that way. It all depends on our choices.” 

“So if we do everything right…” Bendy prompted, wanting to know what they were trying to do. 

“Then we’ll befriend an angel and a monster and heal a few broken souls,” Henry replied, “but we still have the dragon to worry about. She is the one person I have never seen before, and we’ll have to act accordingly to avoid crossing her path. Usually, my adversary has something proceeding them that alerts me to their approach, but I don’t know what we could use to identify her coming near us.” 

“Um… I know you said that dragons are master predators, but she seemed awfully large,” Bendy mused. “I bet she scrapes the tops of the hallways and isn’t very fast. I mean, she must be cramming herself into a tiny space, right?” 

Henry nodded, considering that. “That would definitely be a telltale sign. I suppose we’ll just have to wait to test it though. Now, let’s get going before Buddy starts worrying. And remember, don’t leave the room until I do. Feel free to play around a bit, though.” 

“Okay,” Bendy agreed as they strode forward into a gigantic space filled with toys and couches and a giant fountain. The sign above the fountain marked the space as the _Heavenly Toys Workshop_. 

As Bendy looked around in awe, he heard Henry mutter bitterly under his breath, “I don’t remember any of this.” It was almost as if he was saying the statement unwillingly, or like he was forced to say it. Bendy filed that away for later consideration, knowing that Henry probably wouldn’t reply as long as this _Susie_ was listening. He instead rushed up to a giant plush Boris, giving it a great big hug. 

“You like that thing, don’t you?” Henry asked with a chuckle as he walked up behind the toon, a soft smile on his face. 

“It’s nice,” Bendy agreed. “It reminds me of _my_ Boris. I… I miss him. And Alice. And Edgar. Even Charley and Barley. They were really all I had. I really hope nothing bad happened to them.” 

“Do you know where they are?” Henry asked curiously. 

“No, but I know the Colored One helped them escape Joey. I think she’s hiding them, but I’m not sure,” Bendy replied. “I wonder if she’s around here somewhere…” 

“Maybe we’ll run into her,” Henry said as he started toward the stairs. 

“Maybe,” Bendy agreed. “Are you leaving the room now?” 

“Only if you’re ready to let go of that Boris plush,” Henry smiled. 

Bendy reluctantly released his hold on the giant toy and followed the animator up the stairs where Henry headed into the next room which was full of what looked like toy making machines. He then proceeded to unclog the belts and fix the machine. 

“What are you doing?” Bendy asked. 

“I’m trying to fix the machine as it controls the shelves blocking our way,” Henry explained. “If we get the toys out of the belt and then pull the lever out there in the Heavenly Toys Workshop, we can then pull that lever on the machine and make the shelves move.” 

“That sounds smart,” Bendy said. “Can I help?” 

Henry thought about that before answering, “Sure. Why don’t you go and pull that lever out there so we can start the machine?” 

“Okay!” Bendy agreed before running out of the room and pulling the lever. “I got it!” he called to Henry.

“Great! Now come back here. If you like, you can play this recording over here.” 

“Recording? Where?!” Bendy asked excitedly as he rushed back into the workshop. 

“Over here,” Henry said, gesturing to a recording on a desk that had been revealed once the bookshelves had moved. 

Bendy allowed Henry to pick him up so that he could press the play button, but as he listened to the voice, his excitement ebbed a little bit. 

“He sounds like Barley almost…” he said quietly, laying his head on Henry’s chest. “That prank even sounds like something Barley might do…”

“Yeah, Shawn was quite the character,” Henry agreed. “Come on. We’re getting to the part where everything we do is paramount.” 

“Okay. What do you want me to do?” Bendy asked. 

“I’m going to hold you for this bit. It’s the only way I can guarantee you won’t disappear on me,” Henry began. 

“I’m not going to leave ya,” Bendy pouted. 

“That’s not what I mean,” Henry said, trying to calm the toon. “I’m saying that the person we’re about to meet is not a nice person, and if I don’t keep you close, she may try to take you and hurt you. I’m not going to let that happen. Not if I have anything to say about it. But that means you have to stay in my arms no matter what happens. Okay?” 

“Okay,” Bendy agreed. 

“Ready?” Henry asked. 

“Ready,” Bendy confirmed. 

Henry pushed the door into the next room open and Bendy’s sight was filled with the images of his good friend Alice Angel. Plushies, cutouts, and posters lined the room with a sign reading, _She’s quite a gal!_ spanning the top of the far wall above a window showing a door with a star on the front with the name _Alice Angel_ on it. 

“What is this place?” Bendy asked. “Is this where Alice is?” 

“Not the Alice you know,” Henry replied quietly, tightening his hold on the toon in his arms as the lights went out and the little screens around the room lit up, showing off the little Alice Angel as singing started through the speakers:

_“I’m the cutest little angel,_

_Sent from above,_

_And I know just how to swing._

_I got a bright little halo_

_And I’m filled with love…_

_I’m Alice Angel!”_

“That’s Alice’s theme song…” Bendy muttered. “What’s going on here?” 

Henry didn’t answer as the singing continued.

_“I’m the hit of the party,_

_I’m the bell of the ball,_

_I’m the toast of every town._

_Just one little dance,_

_I know you'll fall…_

_I’m Alice Angel!”_

“Henry, what’s going on?” Bendy asked hesitantly, his uneasiness growing as a light lit up the door behind the window. “What do you mean, this isn’t Alice?” 

“Not everyone is considered perfect, Bendy,” was Henry’s only reply as the last verse of the song began to play. 

_“I ain’t no flapper,_

_I’m a classy dish,_

_And boy, can this girl sing!_

_This gal can grant your every wish…”_

Suddenly, a woman with a half-deformed face jumped up in front of the window and screeched, _**“I’M ALICE ANGEL!!!”**_ before the lights went out. 

Bendy screamed from sheer terror and clung tightly to Henry, the animator wrapping his arms even more around the toon and holding him close to his chest. No way was Susie Angel getting Bendy from him. Not over his dead body. 

They heard someone searching in the dark, and then a muttered curse when the person didn’t find what they wanted before suddenly warm breath brushed against Henry’s neck, making him tense up in apprehension. Who knew if Susie wanted a fight or not. 

Thankfully, she didn’t make a move to attack him or Bendy. Instead, Susie spoke softly in that smooth, manipulative croon that Henry had come to know so well.

“I see you there…” she said, her voice sickly sweet, “a new fly in my _endless_ web… Let’s see if you and your little… _friend_ are worthy to walk with _angels_ —” 

A chuckle from Henry’s other side made Bendy clutch even tighter to his Creator’s shirt, his heart racing. The only thing keeping him from running around in circles screaming was Henry’s warning about life and death and what this angel did to perfect toons, not to mention how closely Henry was holding the demon to his chest. 

“—when you already trod where _dragons_ lie…” 

No sooner than her voice had vanished did the lights come on, revealing the panic-stricken demon and the tense animator. It took a few minutes for the revelation that she was gone and they were safe for the moment to sink in completely, and even then, neither of them made a move to let go of the other.

Eventually, Bendy found his voice and said, “I see why you wanted to hold me during that…” 

“Yeah,” Henry agreed. “You heard her searching around in the dark, right? I think she was looking for you. She wanted to take you. I am _so_ glad that I made you let me hold you.” 

“Definitely,” Bendy stammered. “I don’t even want to _try_ and imagine what would have happened if she got her hands on me in the dark. I have a feeling there would have been one less demon walking around the studio though…” 

“And this is why you never scorn an angel,” Henry said, trying (and failing miserably) to lighten the mood with a joke. “Just because they’re from heaven doesn’t mean they’re not into revenge.” 

“I know Alice is technically a _fallen_ angel, but that Alice seems like she came from heck more than being sent from above,” Bendy shuddered. 

“She’s no angel, that’s for sure,” Henry agreed. “You ready to keep going?” 

“We’re heading toward her _lair_ , right?” Bendy checked. 

“Unfortunately,” Henry confirmed. 

“And _why_ do we think this is a good idea?” Bendy asked. 

That made Henry laugh. “I never said it was a good idea,” he chuckled after getting his laughter under control. “It’s my _only_ idea. The elevator is that way, and if we can get that _Alice_ to help us we can use it to get back to the upper levels and out of the studio.” 

“At least we have an actual reason for wandering into her territory besides ' _we have no clue what we’re doing so let’s just try something and go with it_ ,'” Bendy sighed, half in relief that they actually had a plan and half in fear of what would happen if it went wrong. 

“That would be a terrible reason,” Henry agreed before asking, “Do you want me to put you down? Because I can definitely do that—”

“NO!” Bendy cried, his grip renewed on Henry’s shirt. It took a moment for Bendy to realize the volume of his outburst. “I-I mean, I’m okay with you holding me for a while. If you want to, of course.” 

Henry smiled down at the toon, that calm fatherly love evident in his green eyes. “If you want me to hold you for a little longer, you just have to say so, Bendy,” he said kindly. “I don’t mind.” 

“Th-thanks, Henry,” Bendy smiled, allowing himself to be snuggled into Henry’s left arm so that the old animator would still be able to use his right to defend them as they started onward. 

“Of course, Bendy,” Henry replied as he pushed the door leading to the next room open, leaving the trashed Alice Angel memorabilia room behind. 

This was going to be a _long_ loop. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! That analogy with the ax being too heavy was actually given to me by my mother when I asked her what she would say if she wanted to avoid telling someone something to keep them safe (as I am only fifteen and have no children, I go to my parents for advice about writing parental characters when I get stuck), so shout out to her.  
>  But Susie! Wow, what a performance from the angel herself!  
>  Susie: *smiles* "Why, thank you, Fantasy!"  
>  See, boys? Susie doesn't complain.  
>  Bendy: "Susie is also insane!"  
>  Susie: "I am not! I should turn you into pasta for that insult, you little--"  
>  Mirage: *pulls out two katanas* "You touch him over my dead body."  
>  *sigh* I have to go split this up. Thanks for reading! Don't forget to comment and kudos!
> 
> _This recording has ended._


	6. A Whole Twisted World Out There

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Our trio of heroes now enter the lair of the fallen angel. But will it really be like Heaven on Earth or… quite the opposite?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know it’s been a while since I posted, but here I am again after a bunch of art posting on Insta! And what a chapter it is! Don't you think, Heaven?  
>  _It sure is Fanta! And in this chapter I helped out a little with Buddy! Yay me!_  
>  Bendy: “You just love sticking us in these situations, don’t you guys?”  
>  _Oh, hush now child! Here, have a carnival sized jolly rancher multi-flavored lollipop for a job well done! *Hands Bendy a large colorful lollipop and Pat's him on the head SWEETLY~*_  
>  Bendy: *licking the lollipop begrudgingly* “This doesn’t mean I’m not mad at you…”  
>  Do you want a kiss? Along with a hug as well~?  
>  Henry: “Stop bribing my toon.”  
>  _I don't know… Should we Fanta~?_  
>  Nah. It’s fun.  
>  …  
>  Wait… Since when was I demoted to a soda pop?!  
>  _Pfffffttttt, you just noticed that? And you weren't DEMOTED, your name was just shortened. XD_  
>  Bendy: “What is soda pop?"  
>  _It's like candy but in liquid form. And it's fizzy._  
>  Basically, it’s something you don’t need because you’d go crazy on a sugar high. XD  
>  _Eh, I'm used to it. Me and my family practically LIVE off of it._  
>  I was talking about Bendy. He doesn’t need any. And I think Henry agrees.  
>  Henry: “I do. No soda for Bendy.”  
>  Bendy: “Aw…”  
>  Now that we have that out of the way, shall we get on with the show, Heaven?  
>  _We shall, my sugary companion~. Pfffffttttt…_  
>  Oh, when I get my hands on you--
> 
> _This recording has ended._

They stepped through the door into the hallway and walked on, Bendy clinging to his creator as they pressed on. After that terrifying jumpscare by Susie Angel, Bendy was perfectly fine in his creator’s arms. He had no intentions of leaving Henry’s embrace anytime soon. 

After a few turns, they came upon a fork in the road where there were two signs: _Demon_ and _Angel_. 

“All right, Bendy,” Henry said, bringing the toon’s attention to the old animator. “Which one should we choose?” 

“You want _me_ to choose?” Bendy asked, surprised. “What about choices meaning the difference between life and death here?” 

“This one doesn’t really change anything,” Henry explained. “It’s more of a way for… I mean, it doesn’t matter which path we take.”

Bendy looked between the paths and considered which one to take. He had a feeling that the angel path would be nicer, but he couldn’t be sure of that. Not after that angel that had broke glass _with her fists_. How did they know that she wasn’t waiting for them inside? On the other hand, she might be counting on them taking the demon path because of that exact logic and waiting for them inside that one. 

“Do you think she’s waiting for us in one of the paths?” Bendy asked nervously, not wanting to encounter that demonic angel again. 

“What? Oh! No, she’s not. She’s back in her lair. You don’t have to worry about her for a little while,” Henry assured him. 

“Um… In that case, I think I’ve had enough of angels for a while,” Bendy said, looking towards the demon path.

“Demon path it is!” Henry proclaimed as he stepped through the demon side. 

Bendy jumped as he heard something slam shut. “W-what was that?!” 

“When you choose one, the other closes,” Henry said simply. “We can’t go through the Angel path anymore. We have to take the Demon path now.” 

Bendy sighed in relief. “Oh, okay. That’s okay. At least it’s not that demonic angel again.” 

“Nope, though I wouldn’t call her that to her face. She’s rather vengeful,” Henry told him as he turned into the ink-filled room. 

Bendy’s spirits sank as he looked at all the ink. He clutched tighter to Henry’s shirt so he wouldn’t fall. Who knew what would happen to him if he went under that ink! 

Henry noticed his actions and held the demon closer to him as he started forward through the ink. “Don’t worry, Bendy,” Henry assured him. “I won’t let you fall.”

Bendy relaxed feeling much better knowing that Henry wouldn’t let himself be taken by the ink. 

The room was small and flooded with ink, but what really caught his eye was the recording on the chair in the corner.

“Hey, Henry? Can we play that recording please?” Bendy asked. 

“Hm? Oh, sure, I guess,” he replied, bringing the little demon closer to it so Bendy could press the play button.

Bendy tensed as Joey Drew’s voice rang through the room:

> **_“There’s nothing wrong with dreaming. Wishing for the impossible is just human nature. That’s how I got started. Just a pencil and a dream! We all want everything without even having to lift a finger._ **
> 
> **_“They say you just have to believe!_ **
> 
> **_“Belief can make you succeed. Belief can make you rich. Belief can make you powerful._ **
> 
> **_“Why, with enough belief, you can even cheat death itself!_ **
> 
> **_“Now that… is a beautiful, and positively silly thought.”_ **

The tape clicked off, and Henry sighed. “You know, he wasn’t always like that.”

Bendy looked up at him. “What do you mean? That’s the Joey I know. Cruel, manipulative, and heartless. With those cold brown eyes…” 

“He wasn’t like that before I left the studio,” he reiterated. “He was kind, and cheerful, and smart, and sure, he didn’t think things through, but that’s what I was there for. We were inseparable. Best friends.” 

“What happened?” Bendy asked. 

“We were tired and stressed and worried and we got into a fight,” he explained solemnly. “It was only a day from a deadline that we knew we wouldn’t be able to meet and we weren’t thinking straight, and that little spat about work quickly escalated into me promising him that once I left that day, I would never come back, ending our friendship out of anger. I will never forget his expression when I left that office: he looked heartbroken, his brown eyes full of tears. I expected him to come after me, and I heard him start to, but then there was a cry from inside the office, and he didn’t come after me.” He moved through the door and put Bendy down before continuing. “I wish… I wish I had gone back to see why he didn’t follow me. It’s my worst regret. Now, I don’t think I’ll ever know why, and it’s all my fault.” 

“It’s not your fault, Henry,” Bendy assured him. “None of us blame you for not going back, no matter what Joey says. You came back, and that’s what matters to us, to me. No one else would have.” 

Henry smiled. “Thanks, Bendy. Believe me, if I had known that you guys were here, I would have come back sooner. You guys were my first creations. You mean the world to me.” 

Bendy smiled and snuggled closer to Henry’s chest. “Thanks for coming back, Henry. Thanks for saving me from the Master of the studio.” 

“Of course. You will never have to worry about him hurting you ever again as long as I am near, my little devil darling.” 

Before Bendy could reply, a cutout popped around the corner, startling the two. 

“Buddy!” Henry scolded as the animator turned the corner with a terror-stricken demon attached to his chest. “You scared us to death!” 

The expression on the lupine toon’s face could only be described as sheepish as he signed, **Sorry. I couldn’t resist.**

Henry sighed. “It’s times like these that cement my belief that you’re just a kid who ended up in the wrong place at the wrong time.” 

“That’s because he is one,” Bendy muttered, glaring at Buddy. 

“Please tell me you found something we can defend ourselves with,” Henry said. 

Buddy smiled and handed him a Gent pipe. 

Henry nodded as he inspected the weapon. “This will do. Let’s keep moving. You want me to put you down now, Bendy?” 

“No! I’m good! I’m still trying to lower my heart rate,” he said. He was good right where he was, thank you very much! 

Henry chuckled. “Let’s try to lower the amount of scares for a while, Buddy. I think Bendy has had enough jumpscares for one day.” 

“Or the rest of eternity,” Bendy amended. “That would be good too.” 

That made Henry laugh. Man, did he miss having company! “Yeah, I don’t think that’s going to happen, but you can only hope. Let’s go.” He pushed the door open to the Toy Storage room.

“That’s a lot of toys,” Bendy remarked. 

**Come on, we’ve got to keep going. As tempting as these toys are, we're not out of the woods just yet. We still have to meet** **_her,_ ** Buddy signed before secretly swiping a small Boris plushie and putting it in one of his pockets.

“Buddy’s got a point. We have to keep moving,” Henry agreed. 

Bendy squeaked a Bendy plushie as Henry moved past into the next room, which revealed a Bendy statue and a switch that obviously opened a door. 

“Stay here,” Henry said as he put Bendy down. “Buddy, keep an eye on Bendy. I’m going to go find the other switch. I’ll be back in a minute.” 

Bendy and Buddy watched as the old animator turned the corner. 

“Is it just me, or does he seem constantly tired?” Bendy asked. “And I mean tired in the sense of he’s almost bored to death or something. The only time I see life in him is when he laughs. Smiles aren’t even close. They never reach his eyes. You know?”

 **Hmmm, you might have a point there. Do you think it's because of that secret that he's hiding from us?** Buddy signed, a thoughtful look to his face.

“Maybe, but if it hurts him that much, then why won’t he tell us? And don’t tell me that weird _it’s too heavy for us_ thing he told us. There’s more to it. I just know.”

**Maybe we can question him slowly? You know, bit by bit. Making our questions seemingly innocent and non-related at first but then going more in-depth. But not too fast or else he would suspect what we're trying to do with him.**

Bendy grinned at Buddy. “You know, for a human, you make a pretty convincing wolf. That sounds like a good plan!” 

**Thanks! I learned to do it through the crime novels my mother used to read with me when we had nothing else to do,** Buddy signed cheekily.

Bendy was about to respond when he heard a grunt of pain coming from the direction that Henry had gone. 

“Henry!” he cried as he rushed to his Creator, Buddy following behind. 

When they arrived, they found Henry battling a deformed member of the Butcher Gang, Charley, and getting beaten in the process. 

“I don’t remember him being this strong last time,” Henry grumbled as he tried to get a swipe at the chimp only to get hit in the leg. 

“We’ve got to help him, Buddy!” Bendy exclaimed. 

Buddy looked around for a weapon of sorts and remembered the bone in his mouth. After taking it out of his mouth, he signed to Bendy, **You think you can use any of your demon powers while I try to swing at him?**

“I have demon powers?” Bendy asked in surprise. “What demon powers? I’m not a true demon, I’m a toon! I don’t have demon powers, I have a… a hammerspace!” 

Bendy pulled a giant mallet out from behind his back and slammed it down on the deformed Piper, causing it to turn its attention away from Henry and to the two toons at the end of the hallway. 

“I think I just made it mad,” Bendy whispered, his eyes shrinking in his fear. 

**Well, at least we're distracting it enough for Henry,** Buddy signed.

“True. You hit it with the bone now. I’m gonna see if Henry is okay,” Bendy said as he dodged around the Piper. 

The Piper tried to hit Bendy but was distracted by Buddy hitting him on the head with the bone. 

“Henry!” Bendy cried as he rushed over to the old animator who had collapsed against the wall. 

“I-I’m okay, Bendy,” he said immediately. “Just a little sore. Where’s the—”

 **Don’t worry,** Buddy signed as he approached, **I made sure it went back to the ink. Found a batch of courage I didn’t even know I had.**

Henry relaxed. “Well, that’s one less thing for me to worry about.”

 **Are you all right, Henry?** Buddy signed.

He nodded. “It isn’t the first time I’ve been knocked around. Seriously though, it was almost like that thing was made out of concrete for all the good I did hitting it. Is it just me, or are the monsters of the studio getting stronger?” 

“Don’t ask me,” Bendy replied. “I wouldn’t know.”

 **I wouldn't know either. How would you, Henry?** Buddy signed.

“I… I can’t tell you. I won’t allow anyone else to be a target. Not again.” He stood up, favoring his left leg as his right had been slammed with a pipe wrench. “Come on. We have to keep moving.” 

The two toons looked at each other as he headed toward the lever and gestured for them to head to the other one down the hall. 

“Well,” Bendy began, “it’s a different answer from last time.”

 **Yeah, but it just adds more on the mystery at what he's keeping from us,** Buddy signed.

“True, but we’re making progress! That’s more than he told us last time,” he said excitedly. 

Once the levers were pulled, they moved on, but Buddy and Bendy noticed that Henry was more worried than before, looking around and clutching the pipe wrench in his hand tighter. 

The next room held an elevator, and Bendy rushed to the elevator, fascinated by it. 

“What is this?!” he asked excitedly. 

**It's called an elevator, Bendy. You wanna press the button?** Buddy signed.

“Yeah!” He slammed down the button and led the trio into the elevator as it slammed shut behind them. “H-hey! What’s the big idea?!” 

Suddenly, the elevator began moving down, startling the two toons as a voice came on through speakers in the roof. 

“You’re all so interesting, so… different. I have to say, I’m an instant fan. Even of that little… **devil**.” Susie Angel’s voice echoed through the tiny space. 

“Hey!” Bendy yelled indignantly. “What’s wrong with devils?” 

“Bendy,” Henry said, a warning clear in his tone. 

“It looks like you all have a date with an angel!” she said, ignoring Bendy’s outburst. “Come to me now. Level Nine. Just follow the screams…”

“What is her problem?” Bendy grumbled. “She must be a real jerk.” 

“Bendy, that was the angel from the Alice Memorabilia room,” Henry told him. 

Bendy froze, his smile wavering. “Y-you mean we’re going to see h-her?”

He nodded solemnly. 

“Great…” He twiddled his fingers before looking at Henry and speaking again. “Um… Would you mind… Um…” 

“Come here, Bendy,” Henry said immediately, a kind look on his face.

Bendy walked over to the old animator, allowing Henry to pick up the little devil and hold him close. 

**What do we do next, Henry?** Buddy signed.

He sighed. “This next part is all up to chance, unfortunately. Chance and whether Susie decides to be kind this time around and not kill us immediately.”

 **Perfect…** Buddy signed exasperatedly. 

“Is there a way to get her to help us?” Bendy asked Henry. 

“We’re about to find out,” he said nervously as the elevator slowed to a stop and Susie’s voice came over the speakers again. 

“Come now, little ones, step out of your cage!” she crooned. “There’s a whole _twisted_ world out here.” 

“C-c-cage?!” Bendy whimpered, clinging tighter to Henry.

 **This can't end well…** Buddy signed.

“Come on,” Henry told him. “We have to keep moving.” 

Henry led Buddy down the stairs with Bendy in his arms toward a door with a banner above it reading, _She’s quite a gal!_

“That she is,” Henry muttered. “That she is.” 

They walked up to the door and it opened slowly, allowing the trio to step through. Buddy immediately ran ahead, leaving Henry and Bendy in the dust as they struggled to keep up.

“Wait!” Bendy cried from within Henry’s arms. “Buddy, stop!”

They followed him to find a room full of mutilated toons, chests torn open. Bendy clutched at Henry’s chest, his eyes shrinking with terror. 

“H-Henry… What happened here?” he whispered, not trusting his voice. 

Henry said nothing, just shook his head, his expression somber. It seemed that he had known this was coming, and that scared Bendy even more. 

“Buddy? Are you… okay?” the demon asked the wolf. 

Buddy didn’t respond, staring at a Boris with his chest torn open, his face shadowed with grief. This was wrong. Just wrong. 

Henry patted Buddy on the shoulder, causing the wolf to look at him, and gave him a nod. Bendy watched the two exchange a silent conversation before Henry turned to move further into the field of gutted toon scarecrows. 

“Where are we going?” Bendy asked. 

“She said to go see her,” Henry said simply, his voice monotone to hide his anger, though Bendy could hear a trace of it underneath. “Do you see her yet?” 

Bendy shook his head. 

“Then we have to keep going.” 

Suddenly, the angel’s voice came on over the speakers: 

“Look around. It took so many of them to make me so beautiful. Anything less than perfect was left behind.” Then her voice sounded softer, younger, scared, a whole other person as she said, “I had to do it. She made me,” before the speaker shut off again. 

“That… that sounded like my Alice,” Bendy said softly. “That second voice, I mean. She sounded so scared… Did that angel do something to her?” 

Henry sighed. “I don’t know. That was the voice of Susie Campbell, Alice’s original voice actress, and the other… well, I’ve come to call her Malice, as she is nothing like my— _our_ angel. She’s twisted and cruel, and doesn’t care what she has to do to others to achieve her goals.” 

“I… I don’t think I like Malice’s voice. Susie’s voice is much better,” Bendy told him. 

“Agreed,” Henry said as he turned, spotting something on a desk nearby. “Odd… I don’t remember there being a paper there…” He stepped closer and Bendy was able to click the play button on the tape next to it, and Susie’s voice rang through the room: 

> **_Who would have thought? Me, having lunch with Joey Drew! Apparently times are tougher than I thought. For a moment there, I thought I’d be stuck with the check. But I gotta say, he wasn’t at all what I expected. Quite the charmer. Even called me Alice. I liked it._ **

Bendy listened to it intently, then looked over at the document Henry was examining: 

> **_From: Joey Drew_ **
> 
> **_To: All Staff_ **
> 
> **_Please give a warm welcome to Allison Pendle, Joey Drew Studios’ newest employee. Allison is a talented voice actress with lots of dreams. In her spare time, she loves to cook and invent recipes. I know that as soon as you meet her, you’ll be taken with her beautiful voice and charm. She’s so interesting, so… different. I have to say, I’m an instant fan._ **
> 
> **_Effectively immediately, Allison will be the new voice of Alice Angel. We believe this restructure in voice talent will lead to a more cohesive character list_** **—** **_and more success for our dreams._**
> 
> **_Allison will meet with Sammy Lawrence after lunch to discuss rerecording Alice Angel’s dialogue. Then I will bring her around to meet everyone._ **

Bendy stared at it. If Susie was Alice’s voice actress and loved Alice so much, then Joey must have replaced her with this Allison girl to make her upset! That was Joey’s way, after all. This thought was cemented when he saw the handwritten note at the bottom: _Distribute immediately to all employees except for Susie Campbell._ His anger boiled. Why would Joey—

Then he froze. Henry had said that nicer voice was _Susie’s_ … Did that mean— 

“H-Henry?” Bendy asked hesitantly. 

“Yes, Bendy?” he asked absentmindedly as he ran this new information through his head for later consideration. 

“If B-Buddy is that Boris back there… and Buddy used to be human… is Susie… is Susie the twisted angel?” he asked, not wanting it to be true. “Is she… is she Malice?”

Henry said nothing for a moment, before finally replying, “Not everyone came out as a perfect toon, Bendy. Some people were hurt, and Joey never forgave them for it, even if it wasn’t their fault.” 

Although it wasn’t a direct answer to his question, Bendy didn’t need it to be. He understood what Henry was trying to say. Susie had been a first attempt to create Alice, _his_ Alice, and she had been a failure. She had become a version of Alice, sure, but a corrupted one. Joey, in disgust and horror, had abandoned her, and with Susie confused and scared and not knowing what to do, Malice—the fallen side, the **demonic** side of Alice—had taken over, and done this, leaving Susie to do nothing but watch in horror. It was a wonder Susie could slip out and speak to them at all. Poor Susie… It ripped his heart in two to think of what she must be going through. He couldn’t help but associate her with his Alice, and that made the heartache even worse. 

“Come on, Buddy,” Henry said, startling Bendy out of his thoughts. “Time to move on. We have to keep going.” 

As Henry moved to leave the graveyard of toons, Bendy spoke again. “You know, I don’t think I’m scared of her anymore.” 

“Oh?” Henry asked, surprised. “And why is that?” 

“Well, I mean, I’m still worried about what she might do, but it’s hard to think of her as a monster when you realize that she’s just as scared herself. Sure, Malice is a jerk, but Susie is just scared and doesn’t know what to do, and I kinda find it hard to hate her because of it.” 

Henry smiled at him. “I’m glad you understand how I feel then. I’ve tried talking to Buddy about her, but all he sees is Malice. He was attacked by her a while back, you see, and it’s turned him against her completely. He doesn’t think she can be kind.” 

“I think she might be kind if she just realized that it doesn’t matter what Joey thinks and she’s perfect just the way she is,” Bendy said. 

“Yeah, that would do it, but you try convincing her of the fact. It’s not easy.” 

Bendy was about to reply when they reached a small room with a large window, displaying Susie—Malice torturing a deformed Butcher Gang member. What had Henry called it? Not Charley… Oh. Right. A Piper. 

“Hm… Now we come to the question,” Malice began, not a hint of Susie in her multi-layered voice. Bendy briefly wondered if a bit of Allison’s voice was in Malice’s or if it was just Susie’s. “Do I kill you? Do I tear you apart to my heart’s delight? The choices of the beautiful are unbearable. How’s a girl to choose?” She laughed, showing off her yellowed teeth. 

“Is she talking to us or the Piper?” Bendy whispered, not daring to let go of Henry in Malice’s presence. 

“I think us, but it’s hard to tell with Malice,” Henry whispered back. “With Susie, she’s either talking to herself or to us and it’s easy to tell.”

Malice and Susie ignored their whisperings, Malice continuing on; “Take this little freak for instance,” she snarled, gesturing to the Piper. “It crawled in here, trailing his tainted ink to my door. It could have touched me, it could have _pulled me back_!” 

Her voice changed to show a bit of Susie as she continued to speak. “Do you know what it’s like? Living in the dark puddles?” Susie asked.

“It’s a buzzing, screaming well of voices!” Malice exclaimed. 

“Bits of your mind, swimming… like… like fish in a bowl!” Susie cried.

“That it is,” Henry muttered in agreement, causing Bendy to look up at him in surprise. How would he know that?! 

Unfortunately, Susie’s voice disappeared completely as Malice continued. “The first time I was born from its inky womb, I was a wiggling, pussing, shapeless slug! The second time… well…” 

“It made me an angel!” they said in unison. 

“I will not let the demon touch me again!” Susie cried fearfully.

“I’m so close now… So… almost perfect!” Malice sighed contentedly as she brushed the clean left side of her face before facing Henry. “So keep your little _darling_ away from me!” she screeched at Henry. 

“Believe me, I don’t plan on getting him anywhere near you,” Henry scowled. 

Malice regarded him for a moment before continuing on, a creepy, malicious smile fit of her name spreading across her face as she did. “Yes, I will spare you.” 

Bendy sighed. That was a relief. 

“For now,” she amended, resparking Bendy’s fear. “Better yet… I will even let you ascend and leave this place. If you will do a few eensy weensy little favors for me first. Return to the lift, my little errand boys. We have work to do!”

Bendy’s hope rose significantly, not dampened at all by the board slamming down and signaling the end of the conversation. She’d let them leave? That was wonderful! “Did you hear that?” he asked Henry excitedly. 

“Don’t get your hopes up,” Henry told him. “Do you really think that Malice will let us out of here?” 

Now that he really thought about it, he didn’t think so, but he had to have hope. 

After all, it was all he had left.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So? How was that for an update?  
>  Bendy: “Better than usual… No one was chased. I still hate that graveyard.”  
>  Henry: “Who doesn’t hate that place?”  
>  Buddy: “I thought Heaven did a pretty good job at my lines…”  
>  Yep! Heaven writes the script with me, so you can’t blame me for everything, Bendy.  
>  _Yeah, but I'm the fun Aunty type~!!!_  
>  Bendy: “Heaven doesn’t write the script! She’s just the editor who helps with Buddy’s lines! You write all the torture you put us through, so don’t even try that lame excuse!”  
>  … No comment.  
>  _Well to begin with, your story, Bendy, has always been pretty bleak and dark. Fanta is just going off by what's already there from the beginning._  
>  Thank you! At least I’m giving you an eventual happy ending.  
>  _Yeah… I wouldn't say the same thing about the real life game…_  
>  Henry: “What game?”  
>  _… Wait… you never told them?_  
>  There was no need to. It’s the Master’s game anyway.  
>  _You DO realize that they might give you less grief about the script if you told them about the horrors of the ORIGINAL game, right?🤔_  
>  I’ll tell them later. Maybe they will stop giving me grief. I know Mirage would.  
>  _If you say so. Oh! Bendy! I have something for you!_  
>  Bendy: “Another bribe?”  
>  _🙄 No! And they're not bribes! They're rewards. Here, *gives a soda flavored lollipop*, since you can't have soda, I figured you could at least taste it in the form of candy.😉_  
>  Henry: *takes the lollipop* “No.”  
>  Bendy: “Awww… you're no fun~!!!”  
>  _Too bad too! Guess what flavor it was~? Just guess~.😏😉_  
>  Henry: “Root beer?”  
>  _😁 No, Orange Fanta!😂🤣_  
>  Okay! That’s just mean! And off topic!  
>  _I AM THE PUN QUEEN!!!🤣_  
>  Anyhoo, next time we are going to meet Norman and Bendy’s not going to like it! Stay tuned!  
>  Henry: “Are you going to tell us about that _game_ now?”
> 
> _This recording has ended._


	7. The Shadows That Light Up The Dark

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The next part of Chapter 3 has been overdue for a while now, and Heaven and I finally got around to writing it. 
> 
> Bendy remembers what it was like before the darkness of the studio took over. 
> 
> Realizations are made as faux friends are sent back to the ink. 
> 
> Two of the Colored Ones discuss our heroes with opposing opinions of them. 
> 
> Illusion finds that Henry and Bendy might not be so bad... Never mind. Illusion is ticked. Again. Seriously, why do you guys keep ticking off the dragon?
> 
> A life is lost, causing secrets to finally be shared and memories to resurface. 
> 
> In the memories of shadows and pains and despair, there is hope. 
> 
> Yes, things are getting interesting. I hope you enjoy the next installment of The Rewritten Story!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there, guys. I know it's been a while. ~~Maybe I should write shorter updates so I could get them out faster than _two months_ between chapters. XP~~ Anyway, the point is, I'm back, and since we're in the middle of a moving situation and it's the last week of school, I thought it'd be a great time to finally finish this update and get it out to the public. But before we start the story, I'd like to say a few things: 
> 
> First, I thank you for all being patient with me. Moving houses with quarantine and having to be my parent's helper as their oldest and getting my first paid job and having online school that I honestly suck at doing _and_ trying to figure out the storyline of for my actual novel so I can finally publish it on top of it all is stressful, so I thank you all a hundred times over for sticking it out and waiting nicely for a new chapter. I was honestly scared that I might get half a dozen comments from _understandably_ upset readers asking where the FLIPPING HECK the next chapter was, so I am happy that you all were kind to me in waiting.
> 
> Second, this AU is constantly evolving, and I now have more material to work with than ever, but I have to get through this first loop to do any of that stuff, so my motivation for this first loop is lacking, and I apologize for that. I'll try to get through this first loop as quickly as possible while still making it enjoyable to read for you guys so we can get to the fun stuff.
> 
> Third, I am happy to say that I finally figured out how to post my art on AO3, and have placed some drawings in the last few chapters along with one specifically for this chapter that I have placed in the endnotes. I hope you enjoy them.
> 
> Fourth, I have realized that one of the reasons for my motivation drops—besides the fact that this part of the story isn't as exciting as what I have planned for the future—is that I don't know whether anyone likes it. Sure, we've been getting kudos—we have 36 on this story, which I'm grateful for, don't get me wrong—but I almost never get feedback from the readers aside from that. That said, I thank those that took the time to comment and tell me how much they enjoyed the story so far. I love interacting with my readers and I know just how much a kind word from a reader can impact an author. Knowing that someone else likes our story is absolutely amazing! Silence from an audience leads an author to believe that no one is enjoying their story, and so they want to work on the story less. Please, let me know whether you like the story. I love hearing suggestions, as other people come up with ideas I never would have dreamed of! Reactions are always fun to read, and a kind word about the story always makes my day. Even outrage about different parts of the story is welcome and often amusing. Knowing my readers' favorite elements of a story allows me to continue to create an enjoyable experience for everyone. I implore you, if you enjoy the story, please let me know so that I can keep enjoying the writing process. As much as I love working with my characters, what's the point of writing a story if no one likes it?
> 
> Lastly, thanks for reading. Heaven—my wonderful editor—and I have been hard at work getting this update ready for you guys, and so I hope you enjoy it.
> 
> With that out of the way, today's chapter is written in snippets of time instead of one big block. It'll go back next chapter, which will be the end of Chapter 3 of the game. I PROMISE that it won't take two months to get the next one out. I'll try to stick to a more reasonable schedule of AT LEAST once a week from now on.
> 
> All right, I think that's it. Anything else, Heaven?
> 
> _Oh yeah! For all you TFP fans, we’re adding some new characters to the Good Predacon, and we MIGHT do a Merformers fic that I will lead with Ruby’s help. And don't forget to visit my page as well for more Bendy fics and so much more! (Her Bendy fic is awesome! - TIF) Thank you SO much for sticking with us! Especially with this blasted quarantine lockdown. I hope you enjoy!_
> 
> We'll be quiet now, and we hope you enjoy The Shadows That Light Up The Dark.
> 
> * * *
> 
> _Darkness cannot drive out Darkness, no matter how hard it tries._
> 
> _Fear cannot eradicate Fear, instead causing more to arise._
> 
> _Despair cannot remove Despair, nor can it erase the tears it brings._
> 
> _Hatred cannot destroy Hatred, often ushering in Death's sting._

Henry and Bendy made their way out of Malice’s hideout to find that Buddy had already left. 

“Maybe he went to the elevator to wait for us?” Bendy suggested. 

Henry nodded. “I doubt he can feel good about staying in a place like this for long,” he agreed. 

They walked out the main doors and jumped as the entrance to Malice’s home slammed shut behind them. 

“Well, we’re not going back in there,” Bendy said thankfully. 

“What, did you want to?” Henry asked with one eyebrow raised. 

“NOPE!” he replied, looking warily at the door. “I’m good!” 

Henry sighed in relief. “Good. If you had wanted to go back in there, I would have been worried.” 

“If you two are done with your little _pow-wow_ ,” Malice said over the speakers irritably, “my machines are hungry. Gather me some spare parts.” 

Henry grabbed the wrench, muttering, “Sheesh. So demanding,” before taking Bendy back to the elevator where Buddy was waiting. 

**So…?** Buddy signed. **How did it go?**

“As well as you could expect with Malice,” Henry sighed as he let Bendy down on the floor. “I really want to help her, but I don’t know how to. She’s just sad, in my opinion. Sad and hurt. If only there was a way to help her understand her true worth…”

Bendy considered that and watched his Creator in contemplation. He understood why he himself felt bad for Susie, as he had gone through similar horrors, but Henry? Henry had just gotten here maybe a week ago, and everyone had tried to kill him. He wondered if this had anything to do with Henry’s uncanny knowledge of the future. 

Now that Bendy thought hard about it, Henry really _had_ been exhibiting this knowledge since he got to the studio. He knew just how to escape the beast on the first floor, he had known Sammy was there, he had known about every searcher they faced, he had known how to get the valve, he had known that there was a door they could hide behind to get away from the beast a second time, he had known about Boris, about him being Buddy, he had known about Malice and all her intentions. But how? 

Could he… No. He couldn’t. He had to be the real Henry. He had encountered fakes before that Joey made to torment him and the others, and they were all stone cold and lifeless. This Henry was warm and light-hearted, but he still seemed sad and slow to smile. It was almost as if he was but a fraction of his former self, a phantom of his former glory. Something had happened to Henry, and Bendy had a feeling it was connected to his knowledge of the studio. 

Meanwhile, as Henry continued to stare off, he couldn't help but think deeply about his troubles. _I wonder how this run will go. I mean, compared to all of the other run-throughs, I can't help but think that something major will happen in this one. I wonder if I'll ever get far enough to ever see the light again. Not to mention my family. Linda is probably **furious** with me by now and I can't even imagine how the kids are feeling. Speaking of kids… _

Henry briefly looked back to Bendy and Buddy then went back to his thinking.

 _They're so young but yet have gone through so much. I can't help but think that this is all my fault. If I had just stayed more level-headed and calm with Joey and talked it out, then maybe we wouldn't be in this situation right now. And now, what will happen to them in this run? Especially Bendy! Compared to the other runs,_ **_this_ **_one is becoming unpredictable. There's no guarantee that any of us, especially Bendy, will make it out of this without having a piece of us lost to this inky abyss…_

Henry was startled out of his thoughts when he realized that Malice hadn’t warned them about the Ink Demon. “Uh, Alice, isn’t there someone we need to be careful of as we’re doing your errands?” he asked tentatively, not wanting to give away his knowledge of the future and the past.

There was a pause for a minute over the speaker. "Well, I _was_ going to suggest that you beware the Ink Demon, but it appears that you've managed to recruit said demon into our little hunt." 

Henry wanted to slap himself on the head. _Of course!_ he thought to himself. _If Bendy is here, then there should be nothing to worry about this time. Right?_

Somehow, when he thought that, he had gotten a feeling that he may have jinxed himself and his toon friends. He hoped not.

"Although," Malice continued, interrupting his train of thought, “there’s been rumors of a new darkness stalking the studio, one that brings a shadowy light that burns through ink with her. I’d try to stay away from anything fitting that description if I were you. If not, well, I enjoyed our date.” 

“ _I_ didn’t,” Henry muttered, making Bendy snicker as they made their way to level K to look for spare parts for Malice. 

## ⋯

The first gear they found was in the hands of a Piper who came at them quickly with his weapon. 

“It _had_ to be a Piper,” Henry muttered. “Why couldn’t it be a Searcher? Those are easier to dispatch.” 

Bendy looked at him strangely. “What are you talking about?” he asked. 

“Nothing,” Henry said as he shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just… stay behind me, okay? I don’t want him to get his grubby mitts on you.”

Bendy nodded and backed off a tad as Henry swung at the Piper with the wrench, engaging the mutated being in combat. But the more he watched, the more he noticed things about Henry’s opponent. Familiar things. Like how the Piper would momentarily back up and throw a mini tantrum when he missed his mark before going back into the fight, or how he tapped his foot in frustration when Henry danced just out of reach of his swing, or how occasionally he would stop and wave his wrench at Henry scoldingly when the man did something particularly gutsy, as if reprimanding a child. Bendy recognized these actions. He _knew_ these actions. He had been forced to fight the one who exhibited those actions all his life as the protagonist of the show. 

The Piper… _was Charley!_

Bendy tried to stop Henry, to save his friend, but he was too little, too late. With one final swing, the Piper was dead, dissolving into ink before their very eyes. 

Henry, satisfied with his work as he picked up the gear from the Piper’s remains, was surprised when he turned to find Bendy on the verge of tears. 

“What’s wrong, Bendy?” he asked kindly as he knelt before the toon. 

“You… k-killed… Charley…” Bendy replied softly. “You killed him… Why…?” 

“Bendy, that wasn’t Charley,” Henry said immediately, responding with the lie that he had been _unsuccessfully_ trying to convince himself of for ages. “That was a fake. There’s no way that _thing_ could have been Charley—”

“Don’t lie to me!” Bendy yelled, the big fat inky tears beginning to roll down his face. “I _know_ that was Charley! And you knew it too! I know you did! And you killed him anyway!” 

Henry tried to pull Bendy into a hug but Bendy pushed away, the image of Henry killing Charley still fresh in his mind and causing him to sob. 

“Bendy… Do you think I wanted to kill him?” Henry asked, startling Bendy out of his stupor. 

“W-what? But you… You seemed so eager…” Bendy turned slightly, confused. 

“I was eager to protect you, not kill the Piper. I wanted to make sure he couldn’t hurt you,” Henry explained. “I know that it wasn’t the best solution, but it was the only way I _knew_ he wouldn’t be able to hurt you. And besides, he’ll respawn later, if it makes you feel any better.” 

Bendy turned around completely once he realized that Henry hated Charley’s death just as much as he did. “He’s… going to… come back?” he sniffled. 

“Yeah. And then, unfortunately, we’ll either have to beat him up again or run away, but that is beside the point. Buddy, I don’t think that was Charley, at least, not the real one. There are tons of those… _Charley clones_ throughout the studio, but I doubt that any of them are the real one. We’ll find the real one eventually, and then we’ll keep him safe with us. We’ll find all of them. Does that make you feel any better?” Henry asked with a weak smile. 

Bendy hesitated for a moment before nodding. 

“Do you want a hug?”

Bendy nodded again and allowed Henry to pick him up and cradle him, needing the familiarity of his Creator after that traumatizing experience. As Henry moved forward, Bendy could only hope that there weren’t any mutilated feral clones of any of his other friends lurking around. 

Too bad his hopes would be dashed soon enough with the sight of the Strikers and Fishers. 

## ⋯

They were almost done with collecting the special gears when they came across a recording. 

“What’s this?” Bendy asked. 

“Um… Wally and Thomas, I think,” Henry replied. 

“Really?!” Bendy exclaimed in excitement, pushing the play button before Henry could reply. 

As he listened to the voices of the two men bicker about how to maintain the Ink Machine, his heart was filled with a feeling that could only be described as bittersweet. As heartwarming as it was to hear the voices of his human friends, the feeling was dampened by the knowledge that they too were most likely trapped in this inky abyss. He desperately hoped that they weren’t lost to the Well of Voices. He couldn’t imagine a worse fate for two of the three people who had cared for him before he had been trapped in the Machine. 

He was startled out of his thoughts by Henry placing a hand on his shoulder. 

“You okay, bud?” he asked. 

Bendy nodded. “Yeah. I just miss them.” 

Henry squeezed the toon’s shoulder reassuringly. “Don’t worry. If they’re here, we’ll find them.” 

“Can you at least tell me if they’re here?” Bendy pleaded. “I know you know. Does it really matter that much?” 

Henry sucked in a breath, contemplating the possible consequences for telling Bendy such things, before letting out a sigh. “I know Tom is here,” he confessed, “but I’ve never seen Wally. Before I figured out he was Buddy, I assumed that the Boris clone I went around with _was_ my old friend Wally. I was half relieved and half saddened when I finally figured it out.” 

Bendy turned and hugged his creator, glad that he wasn’t alone in this heckish place. “Thank you,” he said softly into Henry’s chest. “Thank you for telling me. You don’t know how much that means to me.” 

Henry smiled and held the toon close. “Of course, Bendy. I’m glad that I could ease your peace of mind.” 

Bendy was about to reply when he felt Henry tense and his grip on Bendy tighten. He looked up to see Henry’s face had paled and he was staring ahead of him in fear. Wanting to know what was wrong, he turned his head to find that the dragon had somehow snuck upon them. 

_“Hello, little one,”_ she grinned, revealing pristine white fangs. _“Miss me?”_

Bendy froze. How had she found them?! 

The dragon chuckled. _“Not one for talking, eh? I should have expected that, as you never spoke in the cartoons, but I suppose I was hoping you were something like my friend. Oh well, I suppose it’s better this way. After all, I was ordered to eradicate you and capture the girl the Lost call the Colored One. This should be easy as pie.”_

“W-wait!” Bendy stammered. “Why do you want to hurt Henry? He didn’t do anything!” 

The dragon whipped back in outrage, her nostrils glowing gold as she tried to hold back what Bendy could only guess to be a spat of flame. _“_ ** _Didn’t do anything_** _?!”_ she snarled furiously. _“He_ ** _abandoned_ **_us. He abandoned Joey Drew, the studio, and you. I ask you how **you** can even pretend to defend him, let alone be his little hand puppet, acting on his every whim! The Traitor left us, left the Director in the darkness for the Master to control, and where was he?! Living peacefully on the Outside with his little family, not even sparing a thought about us and our fates. He couldn’t have cared less about whether you were all right, or even alive! Why would he? He was perfectly content in his life. There was no need for him to care about _**us** , those cursed by the ink and trapped here for eternity. I’m honestly glad that the Master lured him back here to the Studio. The Traitor **_deserves_ **_to feel our pain, our suffering, our fear, our agonies. Don’t you agree, Bendy?”_

“N-no! Henry doesn’t deserve this!” Bendy answered immediately. “He’s a kind Creator and cares about everyone! He wants to help us escape from here! Don’t you want to see the Outside?” 

She thought about that for a moment before speaking again. _“The Outside…”_ she murmured wistfully as if fawning over a distant memory. _“Yes… I miss the Outside. The sun, and the stars, and the sky… But I could never go… I couldn’t leave the others here in the dark. My friends… they don’t deserve such a sentence.”_

“Your friends?” Bendy asked curiously, wondering who would be brave enough to make friends with a dragon. 

_“The Demon… and the Director… My only lights in this eternal darkness…”_ she explained sadly. _“I could never leave without them.”_ She turned her attention back to Bendy. _“What is your point?”_

“Henry could help you get your friends there,” he pointed out, “but he can’t do that if he’s dead. Leave us be, allow us to find the exit, and we will come back for you.” 

“What are you doing? What’s going on?” Henry asked Bendy quietly. 

“I’m trying to keep her from killing you,” he whispered back. 

Not noticing the duo’s quiet exchange, the dragon thought about the toon’s offer. 

_“Very well,”_ she said finally, drawing the duo’s attention back to her. _“I will spare him, for now.”_

Bendy sighed in relief. Henry was safe, for the moment.

 _“But,”_ she went on, resparking Bendy’s fear, _“the second he does something I ordain traitorous to the prisoners of the Studio, he_ ** _will_ **_fall. Do you understand, Bendy?”_

He nodded. He would have to be careful about what Henry did from now on. 

_“Good. Now, I must go hunt my true prey. I will see you again soon, Bendy. Take care, or the Traitor will fall to my fangs.”_

She turned and started off down the corridor before inexplicably disappearing from their sight with a final roar. 

Henry and Bendy stood there for a moment, dumbfounded, before scrambling to get back to the elevator. 

**Woah, woah!** Buddy signed as the duo rushed into the elevator chamber. **Where’s the fire? You look like you were being chased by the Master himself!**

“That… that is not funny,” Bendy said, glaring at Buddy. “Did you know that there was a dragon?” 

**Dragon… Oh! She usually stays on the lower levels, honestly, and isn’t very aggressive unless you attack her or those she calls allies… Are you saying she actively threatened you?** Buddy seemed to be surprised by that fact. 

“Less me and more Henry, who she calls the Traitor,” Bendy explained. “She kind of hates him.” 

“I noticed,” Henry grumbled, keeping an eye out for the dragon to reappear again. 

**That’s odd,** Buddy said, musing over the idea. **She’s usually pretty indifferent, though she and Malice hate each other. But then again, Malice hates anyone who’s remotely perfect or protects the perfect ones from her, so I wouldn’t really read into it that much if I were you.**

“Yeah, the Colored One talked about how Malice hated her,” Bendy agreed. 

“In that case, I would like to meet this _Colored One_ you keep talking about,” Henry said. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend, so they say.” 

“Perhaps she’ll come and help us,” Bendy mused. “Perhaps she will come and help us appease the dragon.” 

“Perhaps,” Henry agreed as he watched the levels pass by them. “Perhaps.” 

## ⋯

Unbeknownst to them, a fox and a snake watched the trio as the elevator descended back to Level 9, where Malice awaited them. 

“Surely, dey’re a strange group,” the snake hissed to the fox in her Southern accent. 

“Yes, sister,” the fox replied. “Bendy has found himself some strange friends.” 

“Ah say we trust ‘em,” the snake said to her sister. “We could use deir help. Perhaps dey could help us defeat da Master and escape dis wretched place!” 

“Perhaps,” the fox allowed, “but I’m not sure yet. I don’t trust this Henry fellow.” 

“Yer just jealous that Bendy likes Henry, ‘is _Creator_ , more than ya, ‘is best pal,” the snake laughed. 

The fox growled. “I am not! I just don’t trust Henry. He knows more than he should. The only thing that has surprised him was the dragon, nothing more. I think he’s a spy for the Master.” 

“Ah tink dere is something else goin’ on, sister,” the snake said with a sigh, knowing that the stubborn fox wouldn’t listen to her no matter what she said. “He seems tired, does ‘e not? Brok’n, even, on the edge of shatterin’ into a thousand pieces. Dis ain’t a man who was just invited to the Studio a week or so ago. Dis a man who has gone through many horrors. Oh, no, somethin’ is off ‘ere, ah know it is. Ah can feel it in my gills.” 

“Oh, shut it about your gills,” the fox snapped. “He was probably drafted in the war before he came. You know how that affects people.” 

“Ah know, and ‘e probably was, but it’s been ages since the war. But a war man don’t never act like dis _ages_ after da war went and ended. He looks like ‘e was brok’n recently. Nah, dis is something else.” 

“Whatever you say, sis,” the fox relented, not wanting to fight with her older sibling for the next… who knows how long. No, she had people to observe. Perhaps she could figure out more about this _Henry_ and why the Master’s dragon, Illusion, wanted him dead. 

## ⋯

As they collected thick ink for Alice, Henry and Bendy went into the far edge of the floor only to be frozen in place as a monstrous being with the head of a projector walked through a room on the other side of a window into the hallway beyond. Henry dragged Bendy in there, to the toon’s dismay, only for them to find that the humanoid beast was gone, to Bendy’s relief. 

“Who or what was that?” Bendy asked. 

“That was the Projectionist,” Henry replied as he searched for something. “He stalks the darkness on Level 14.” 

“You mean that level that Malice won’t let us go down to?” Bendy asked. “That… _thing_ is down there?” 

“Yep, and we’ll be heading down there in a bit,” Henry said absentmindedly. “In the meantime… Found it!” He brought out a recording and set it on the table. “There’s something I wanted to show you. It never failed to make one of my old friends laugh, and I doubt you’ll be any exception.”

“What is it?” Bendy asked curiously, his tail waving back and forth with excitement. 

“Hold on,” Henry grinned. “You have to listen to the recording first or it isn’t funny.” 

Henry let Bendy press play and Wally’s voice rang out through the room: 

**“I don’t get it.**

**“Everyone’s walking around here like grandma just died. Nothing but angry faces everywhere.**

**“These people got to lighten up. I mean, hello! You make cartoons! Your job is to make people laugh.**

**“I’m tellin’ ya, if people don’t start cracking a smile every now and then, I’m outta here!”**

Bendy listened to the recording with a smile, but was brought back from memory lane when Henry cleared his throat. 

“Ready, Bendy?” Henry asked. 

He nodded, wanting to know what Henry was so excited about. 

Henry took a deep breath, then his expression went to mock rage as he began to speak; “How _dare_ you not be happy with drawing the same thing over and over again, having only seven seconds of a cartoon done in a week under really crappy work conditions like the ink seeping through the walls and the elevator being a safety hazard because your boss is a megalomaniac obsessed with bringing his actual cartoon characters to life?” 

Bendy burst out laughing, and Henry smiled, his goal having been achieved, when the toon was startled by rumbling guffaws behind them. 

On the other side of the window, three-quarters submerged in ink, was the dragon, laughing her head off. 

Henry’s smile widened as he asked her, “I don’t suppose you know the end of the joke, do you? I’m guessing your _friend_ told you about it.” 

She hesitated, then nodded. _“The pay was really,_ **_really_ **_bad, though,”_ she said through her snickers. 

Henry, although all three of them knew that he couldn’t understand the dragon, replied as if from a script, “Yeah, that’s true.” 

They all burst into laughter again, and for a moment, they forgot the horrors of the studio, the darkness that it contained, and the terrible Master of the studio that held them there against their will. All that was left was clean, happy energy, the life of the cartoons brought into reality, their perfect innocence restored for but only a moment, though it felt like an eternity. 

When their giggles had finally died, they sat there for a moment in companionable silence, not ready to plunge back into the living heck that had become their existence. All three wished it would never end but it, inevitably, did. 

The dragon was about to leave when Henry stopped her. 

“Wait,” he said, drawing her attention back to him. “What is your name? At least tell us so we can have something to call you when we see you.” 

The dragon hesitated for a moment before softly answering in the human tongue so Henry could understand her, “Illusion. My name… is Illusion.” 

“Well, Illusion,” Henry said with a smile, “would you mind saying hi to your friends for me? Tell them… Tell them I’m coming to find them, and that I won’t stop until they’re free of this heck hole.” 

Shocked, she nodded dumbly, ready to leave again when Henry said one last thing: 

“That includes you, Illusion.” 

She froze for a moment, shuddering, before diving into the ink again, though Bendy swore he saw tears form in her eyes as a soft smile crossed her face before she went back into the ink, disappearing back into the dark abyss. 

“What was that about?” Bendy asked Henry as the man picked him up and started off back to the elevator. 

“Oh, nothing,” Henry replied. “I just remembered what you told me that she said about her friends, and I think I know who they are.” 

“Then who are they?” Bendy asked after a moment when Henry didn’t elaborate. 

“That, my boy, is a story for another time,” Henry said with a sigh as they reached the elevator, leaving the room full of laughter behind. 

## ⋯

“This is bad,” Henry muttered. 

“Oh, you think?” Bendy asked in disbelief. 

They had been told by Malice to eradicate the darkness from her realm and only succeeded in getting cornered by a _lot_ of searchers and Butcher Gang clones. 

“There’s never been this many before… and they’ve never been this strong either,” Henry scowled as he mowed down another Piper before it could reach Bendy. 

“I’d ask what you mean by that, but I doubt you’d answer me,” Bendy pouted. 

“Now is not the time to have this argument!” Henry snarled. 

“When _is_ a good time to have this argument?!” Bendy shot back. 

“When we’re not pressed up against Malice’s door by a horde of things that want to kill us!” 

Just as they were about to be overwhelmed, a gigantic form surged out of the sea of ink under the bridge, spreading wings that would have otherwise been plastered to her side in the small, confined hallways of the Studio. Turning her head to the mob trapping the duo, the gigantic dragon let loose a torrent of flame and eviscerated the twisted creatures. 

Once they were sure that Illusion wasn’t going to kill them, Henry and Bendy relaxed. 

“Thank you,” Bendy said with a weak smile. 

_“If_ ** _anyone_ **_is going to kill the Traitor, it’s going to be me,”_ she said with a smirk. 

“You… You… You stupid lizard!” Malice screamed over the intercom. “You’re not even supposed to be on this floor! Why would you help _them_?!” 

_“Because the Master wants me to keep an eye on them,”_ Illusion growled. _“He has given me control over their fates, and you don’t want to anger the Master, now do you, Alice Angel?”_

Malice said nothing. 

_“I thought so. Now, you two stay out of trouble,”_ she told the duo with a smile. _“I can only keep you out of danger for so long. If she gives you any more trouble, just whisper my name into the ink and I will come.”_

“Did this… Master of yours _actually_ give you control over our fates?” Bendy asked quietly. 

_“No,”_ she admitted in as close as a dragon could get to a whisper, _“but she doesn’t know that.”_

Bendy snickered. “She’s going to be ticked when she figures that out.” 

_“I don’t plan on her ever finding out,”_ Illusion grinned. _“See you around?”_

Bendy nodded. 

“Thank you for that,” Henry said with a smile. “How are your friends?” 

_“They’re… fine. I only told one because the other… I don’t want to get his hopes up after so long… I fear it would break him…”_

Henry nodded after Bendy translated for Illusion. “That makes sense. Well, keep an eye on them for me, will you?” 

_“Why do you ask?”_

“I want to help everyone, especially those your master holds close by him.”

She nodded and dove back into the ink, leaving the duo to go onto their next task. 

## ⋯

“Do we _have_ to destroy all the cutouts?” Bendy whined. “It hurts me every time you chop them down.” 

“Really?” Henry asked, momentarily stopping the cutting down of the cutouts. 

“Yeah. It really, _really_ hurts. Like I feel everything the cutouts feel.” 

“Huh. Well, this _is_ the last one, so after this, I think we’re good.” 

Bendy sighed in relief. “Thank goodness. I hate that feeling.” 

Henry slammed the ax into the last cutout and stopped, seeming to be listening for something. 

When nothing came, he sighed in relief. “All right. Since you’re with me, I think we’re—” 

_“WHO DARES TOUCH THE CUTOUTS?!?!”_ Illusion roared as she surged out of the fountain in the center of the Heavenly Toys Workshop, her maw already ablaze. _“WHO_ **_DARES_ ** _CAUSE MY BEST FRIEND UNBEARABLE PAIN?!?! I SHALL RIP THEM LIMB FROM LIMB!!!”_

“Run,” Henry hissed. “Get in the Miracle Station. I’ll be right behind you.”

Bendy hesitated. Maybe he could reason with Illusion—

“I said _go_ , Bendy!” he growled. “I’ll be right behind you.” 

Bendy ran down the steps, Henry only a few feet behind him, pounding closer and closer to the safety of the Miracle Station. Just as he made his way into the station, Henry slammed the door shut behind him, and for some reason, Bendy couldn’t open it again, the door jammed. Bendy screamed and pounded on the door in front of him, begging for Henry to open it.

“Sorry, Bendy, but this is something I have to do,” Henry said from outside the Station. He then turned around and faced the dragon. 

_“Are you meaning to tell me that **you** , the so-called **Creator** that Bendy is so quick to defend, did **this**?”_ she snarled. _“And I was beginning to think I could trust you…”_

“Look, I bet you’re upset, but I promise I wouldn’t do this if I had a choice. I also didn’t know that hitting the cutouts hurt the originals. How could I? The Ink Demon never spoke and Bendy only just told me that it hurt him!” Henry explained, guessing at the meaning of the snarls that were being aimed at him. 

_“You should have thought about that before you hurt one of my closest companions, **Traitor**. Say goodbye to your little demon, because this is the last time you’re going to see him, or anything else. So long, Traitor!” _

“Noooooooo!” Bendy sobbed, frantically trying to open the door so he could get to Henry. “Don’t hurt him! He didn’t know! He’s sorry! Please, don’t hurt him! I need him! Please!” 

Illusion ignored the toon and instead lashed out with her claws and plunged them through Henry’s chest. 

Henry let out a final gasping breath, his eyes rolling back into his head as Illusion yanked her claws out of his caved-in chest, the now corpse flopping to the ground, the animator dead. 

Satisfied with her work, the dragon took one great stroke of her gigantic wings to fly up into the air before diving back into the fountain, the only evidence of her being there being a few splashes of ink on the floor and the corpse of an old man in his mid-fifties.

Bendy stood there in the Miracle Station, tears flowing freely down his face as he stared through the slot in the door at the dead body of his creator. Henry had seemed so sure that he could talk her out of it, but the price he had paid for the attempt was too high in Bendy’s eyes. _Much_ too high. 

What would he do now? He could try and make it back to the elevator, but there were too many monsters in the way. He could stay put, but he’d have to leave eventually. Buddy needed him. He couldn’t abandon the kid just because he was scared and alone… Could he? 

Bendy was startled out of his thoughts by the corpse sinking into the floor as ink covered it. _What in the world…?_ he thought, staring at the spot the body had been. Where had it gone? Was that normal? What did it mean? What was going on? 

Bendy’s head whipped around as he heard Henry calling his name. He had to be hearing things… right? 

“Bendy! Bendy!” Henry called as he rushed back into the Heavenly Toys Workshop. “Oh, please, for all light that is left in this dark studio, please let Bendy be okay.” 

Bendy watched in wonder as the old man ran into the workshop before turning and rushing to the Miracle Station and peeking through the slot before yanking the door open and pulling the tiny toon into a hug. 

“I’m so glad that you’re all right!” Henry said as he held back a relieved sob. “She didn’t try to attack you, did she?”

Bendy squeezed him in a tight hug and replied, "No she didn't. After what she did to you, she dived right back into the ink." 

“Good. I don’t know what I would have done if she had hurt you,” Henry said as he held Bendy close to him. 

After he was sure that this was real and Henry wasn’t actually dead, Bendy forced himself out of Henry's tight embrace before taking a moment to gather himself and looking Henry straight in the eyes with a serious look that made Henry a bit uncomfortable.

"Henry," Bendy began in a serious tone, "I know you've been keeping secrets from me, and I've been more than patient with you and your privacy, but this is the final straw. You need to tell me what's going on! Like, how you know what nearly everyone is about to do? What they're doing and for what reasons? How to kill the seekers and the other ink monsters? How you're able to go through everything as though you've been through it before? And finally, HOW IN THE WORLD DID YOU COME BACK AFTER WHAT ILLUSION JUST DID TO YOU?!" 

Henry seemed to shrink under the onslaught of questions. “Um… Inky magic?” he tried sheepishly. 

Bendy just gave him a Really Look™. 

“Yeah, I figured you wouldn’t believe that…” Henry said as he pulled at his shirt collar. 

Bendy crossed his inky arms and vigorously tapped his foot, giving him a look that said, _Explain please!!!_

Henry sighed. “I can’t tell you everything, and the reason is that I don’t want to make you another target for Joey. He’s been… _using_ me to play out this twisted story for a long time. It’s… a lot to explain.” 

But Bendy didn't relent. Seeing his creator, his _father_ , die in front of him was too much to handle. "Henry, as far as I'm concerned, Joey has already made me his target,” he said irritably, “and honestly, now that we got rid of the dragon, we've got all the time in the world. Explain. NOW!"

Henry looked away. “Bendy, what is the last thing you remember before meeting me?” 

Bendy was taken aback by the question and searched his memory bank. “Uh… Talking to the Colored One,” he said definitely. “Why?” 

“No, I mean before that. Do you remember anything before I came into the studio?” 

Bendy wracked his memories. He remembered trying to save Alliyah and ultimately failing as he watched her become Mirage, but after that… Nothing. What had he been doing?

“I… No… Why… This isn’t…” Bendy began hyperventilating. “Why is this? This isn’t right! I should have memories! Why can’t I remember what happened after Joey caught us?!” 

“Calm down, Bendy,” Henry said, grabbing the toon’s shoulders and grounding him. “Do you remember a reel with the words _The End_?” 

A memory flashed through Bendy’s mind as he saw himself picking up a reel, fear surging through him, knowing he had to hide it; then another, where a man picked up the reel after listening to Joey’s voice and said the cursed words, causing a primal rage to rip through him to the point where he no longer had conscious thoughts; and finally one where the reel was played and pain ripped through him, but through the pain the man held him close, promising that next time would be better, next time they’d figure it out, whatever _it_ was. Bendy got the feeling that they never figured it out, for that man knelt in front of him right now. 

“I do… You… You took it… And then it played… It hurt... It hurt so much... Almost as bad as acetone... And you were there… You made it better… You made the pain hurt less,” Bendy said slowly, going over the newly recovered memories carefully. “You always made it hurt less, no matter what it was.”

“You weren’t the only one it hurt,” Henry said quietly.

"Whaddya mean? I mean, I know you must've been hurt because of me, but..." Realization dawned in Bendy's eyes. "What about the others? Did that reel hurt them too?"

“It did, but fortunately for them, they never remember. No matter what I do, no matter what I say, they _never_ remember,” Henry said sadly. “You said I seem to know about everything like I went through it before, but you don’t know how right you are. The End screen of a cartoon ends the story, starts it over, resets everything. All you have to do is rewind, and you can watch it all over again. Over, and over, and over, and over again. So many times… I’ve practically memorized everything by this point… And only one person besides myself ever remembered: **you**. 

“I was surprised when you didn’t remember. You and I have always remembered. We are the only ones who remember. It’s become a comforting constant, having someone else who knew your pain, but I didn’t want to push that on you if you didn’t remember. You seemed so young, so innocent, so new to everything… I didn’t want to force you to go through all of it again until you were ready. I wasn’t expecting you to demand to know so vehemently, but I wasn’t really being careful, now was I?” 

Bendy softly chuckled. "No, no, you weren't," he said as he slowly looked up into his Creator’s soft, tired green eyes.

“I’ve never had to be careful before, so it was hard being careful about that knowledge now,” Henry explained. “Yes, things have been different this time. I’ve never had you by my side before. There have been new audio recordings, new writings on the wall, mentions of _Colored Ones_ , and the fact that mutes can now communicate through sign language is surprising but nice. It makes it a lot easier to talk to Buddy. And Illusion wasn’t the one who chased me around, you were—against your will, of course,” Henry added quickly as he noticed Bendy’s horrified look. “Neither of us enjoyed the arrangement, and there were times that we fought the script and just enjoyed each other’s company instead. Those are the highlights of my good memories here at the studio, times where we could be what we were meant to be: a creator and his creation.

“But now, we don’t have to fight it. You can be with me all the time, and you don’t know how much I’ve enjoyed that the last few days. Always knowing that you’re safe and close by is wonderful! And I like being able to help you when you’re down without having to fight the script to do so. It’s… exhilarating, having you close without having to fight anyone or anything.” Henry chuckled. “I… I don’t even know how to put my feelings into words for you. Just know that you’re the best thing that ever happened to me in this studio, and by golly, I am going to protect you the best I can. I promise. And one day, we’ll make it out of here. Together. And we can bring as many as we can on the way out too. Okay?” 

Inky tears fell slowly down his face as Bendy smiled that big goofy grin at Henry and nodded.

Henry’s eyes began to tear up as well as he held out his arms in a silent invitation to his little devil darling.

Bendy slowly walked closer to Henry and allowed him to pull him into a hug, pressing his face against the old animator’s chest as he hiccuped and gasped through the tears. For a moment, he thought he could feel all the _good-things-happy-happy-happy-memories-tenderness-care-protectiveness-_ ** _love_** _-pure-_ ** _love_** that Henry felt for him and it made his tears fall faster. As long as he was here in his creator’s arms, he would be safe. It was something neither of them had to say, but they knew in their hearts that they would protect each other until the end of time. 

They didn’t know how long they stayed there, just enjoying each other’s presence and cutting off the darkness of the studio, but they knew that when it finally came to an end, it was much too soon for their tastes. But Buddy was probably getting worried, Malice was getting impatient, and they needed to keep moving. 

Henry stood up and held Bendy close to him as they made it to the elevator without a single problem. 

Buddy had indeed been getting worried and rushed to check them over. When he was satisfied that they had no injuries, he stepped back and signed, **What took you two so long?!**

“We, uh, had some business to take care of,” Henry said, exchanging a wink with Bendy. 

“Yeah. Creator-to-creation business,” Bendy agreed. 

Buddy looked between them. **You two are acting odd, and knowing you, you won’t tell me why.**

“Nope!” Bendy agreed. “But you’re free to guess.” 

“Doesn’t mean we’ll give you a straight answer though,” Henry chuckled as he pushed the button to Level Nine and pushed them further along on their quest for freedom.

Perhaps they had been alone in the past, forced to fight against destiny itself to even be able to be together, but at least now, after secrets have been shared, after memories have been rediscovered, after connections have been remade stronger than ever before, they will not have to fight on their own. Now, as the closest of friends, as creator and creation, as father and son, through a bond that can only be forged through sharing hatred and pain and fears and despair unlike anything the world has or will ever know for longer than any two people should have to suffer in such a way, they will be together, fight together, plan together, hurt together, laugh together, dream together, hope together, live together, **_love_** together... 

_**Forevermore.** _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Only Light can clear away Shadows, her radiance burning away the Dark._
> 
> _Only Faith can replace Fear, and all she needs is just a spark._
> 
> _Only Hope can dispel Despair, creating a way to stand up and press on._
> 
> _And only Love can end Hatred, shaping new Life with her song._
> 
> _Light is to Darkness what Hope, Faith, and Love are to Hate, Fear, and Despair;_
> 
> _In the presence of the One, the Others disappear._
> 
> * * *
> 
> And that's a wrap! What did you guys think? I'm sorry it took so long to do this. I promised myself that if we were going to post something after almost an entire month of silence, it had better be perfect. Tell me in the comments below if it made up for silence. I'm honestly curious if you guys think so. If it didn't, well, I have another chapter on the way.
> 
> I had a lot of fun with foreshadowing and hints at the future with this one. I wonder if anyone caught them… I mean, I’ve been dropping them throughout the story, but I’m just curious.
> 
> The joke that Henry and Illusion tell is actually from the video [Everything Wrong With Bendy and the Ink Machine in Almost 26 Minutes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jl0pieie_5I) by Chariii5 and SwankyBox. Although the video has _censored_ swearing and is really meant just for a laugh, I thought it was so funny that I had to include it, so here's credit where credit is due. Plus, it caused a little bonding moment, which is always good. I do recommend the video despite its swearing content. It's good for a laugh, but only if you're okay with swearing.
> 
> And that floof at the end was too much for Heaven and I when we were writing it. It’s just so cute! I loved it so much that I ended up drawing it, which you can see above. Floof is the best, isn’t it?
> 
> _I have to agree with Ruby on this one! Floofy really is the best along with a steamy romance! But hey, that's just me._
> 
> Yeah, as nice as a good romance is, this story’s more about family. Hm… Is there anything else I’m forgetting, Heaven?
> 
> _Hmmm, well we're also currently trying to get another chapter of Broken Bones out as well and maybe The Good Predacon. I'm in a Transformers mood and I can't stop it! It's like a runaway dump truck with no brakes! XD_
> 
> I’ve been in a Bendy hype lately, adding more and more content to my growing AU. Like the fact that Henry and Joey are adopted brothers, or how the Colored One became a group of Colored Ones that share similar traits.
> 
> _DON'T. STOP. THE. FEELIN'!!! HOLD ON TO THAT FEELIN'~~~~!!!!_
> 
> XD I will. In the meantime, please comment down below. I don’t care if it’s constructive criticism, reactions, just a ‘I liked the story,’ unintelligible sounds, suggestions on what to do next, or just a plain old keyboard smash. Let us know if you liked it and what you liked so that we can continue to make content everyone enjoys.
> 
> And I think that’s it! I hoped you enjoyed the update and we’ll see you next time.
> 
> Peace out!
> 
> _\- TIF and Heaven_


	8. We Always Fall

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bonds are strengthened. 
> 
> Families are remembered. 
> 
> Love is shown. 
> 
> Children are adopted. 
> 
> And Fantasy FINALLY GOT HER STUPID ACT TOGETHER AND FINISHED THE CHAPTER SHE STARTED TWO MONTHS AGO DANG IT--

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peeks out from behind shield* Are we good? No one's going to kill me?  
> *sighs in relief* Good. I'm safe.  
> I know, I know, I promised a more reasonable publishing schedule, but my summer publishing schedule has always kinda sucked. No matter what I do, I get distracted. It's easier during school. Expect more chapters with school coming for me. ~~If another Covid outburst comes and kicks us out of school and forces me to not talk to anyone in person again SO HELP ME I swear I will jump out this window--~~  
>  Ahem. Sorry. Uh... Enjoy the chapter?

Henry sighed as he placed the ax back in the dropbox. “I _like_ having that ax,” he mumbled to Bendy, who was safely settled in the crook of Henry’s left arm. 

Bendy just shook his head. "Really, Henry? And here I thought you didn't like causing me pain when you destroyed the cutouts," he said in a teasing tone with a mischievous smirk.

Henry rolled his eyes. “Hardy har har. It’s one of the best weapons in the studio, and there are so many crazy things that want to kill us, I like to be armed. Might be the war talking in me though.” 

Bendy snickered. "Oh really? Then… TEN HUT, SOLDIER!"

That made Henry laugh, rich and full. “Nice try,” he chuckled. “I got out of that habit a long time ago.” 

Bendy was overjoyed, shown by the cartoonish stars in his eyes, at seeing Henry smile like that. It made his heart soar to know that he was smiling because of _him_. What a feeling. 

“You both are sickening,” Malice scowled over the intercom. 

“Says the lady whose face is half-melted,” Bendy snickered. 

Malice took a deep breath. “Henry, control that demon of yours or I swear I’m going to gut him.” 

“Yes, Malice—I mean, Alice!” Henry said, clamping a hand over Bendy’s mouth and giving him the Dad Look™. “I am not going to let you get yourself killed,” he hissed. “Got it?” 

Bendy vigorously nodded his head and held up an a-okay hand sign.

“Good. Now, stop antagonizing Malice,” Henry ordered as he took his hand off Bendy’s mouth. “As fun as it is, she’s still extremely dangerous.” 

Bendy thought for a minute and with a childish smile, he looked up at him and replied, "Okay! But can we do it once we're out of earshot?"

Henry sighed. “We won’t be out of earshot of Miss Angel for a while, unfortunately. She controls almost half the studio!” 

“AHEM!!” Malice nearly screeched over the overcomm. “Finally, I have your attention! Hmph! Anyways, I _hate_ leaving work unfinished. Fortunately, I have you to pick up the pieces. But you’ll have to go even deeper. Down, down, down into the abyss. Take the lift down. Say hello to an old friend.” 

Bendy noticed that Henry looked sad at those words. "Henry? Are you okay? What did she mean by that?" Bendy placed his hand on Henry's arm in questioning comfort.

“I’ll tell you when we get down there,” he said quietly. “I… I need to figure out how to explain it first.” 

Ignoring Henry’s discomfort, Malice went on. “Sending you a little present. A little firepower. Take good care of it. It belonged to someone _very_ special.” 

The compartment on the side of the elevator opened to reveal a gun, and Henry scowled. 

“I _hate_ guns,” he muttered. “Too close to the war machines they had us use to kill people. I would _much_ rather have a sensible ax.” 

Bendy felt sympathy for him and wanted to chuck the device away so that it wouldn't bother his creator, but in all honesty, with whatever was in the lower level, they would probably need it. If only he could use his demon powers from earlier! Then he could protect Henry from whatever came their way.

Henry reluctantly reached for it, but only Bendy was surprised when it dissolved into ink. 

“Oops! I forgot! It’s a little hard to get a hold of. Better luck next time!” Malice taunted. 

“Good riddance,” Henry grumbled, moving to leave. “If I can’t have an ax, I still have my pipe. I’ll be fine without a fancy-pants gun that causes more destruction than it’s flipping worth.

“And before you ask, no, she can’t remember,” Henry said, answering the unspoken question in Bendy’s eyes. “I thought she might be able to too, but that’s not it. I have to choose the demon path and not die at all for her to give me that cursed thing, and we both know that I got myself killed by a dragon trying to talk to her.” 

Bendy thought hard about that. "Well maybe it's for the best. Maybe we'll be able to find a more effective weapon down there to defend ourselves with. Right?" Bendy's face looked like it was full of hope but deep down he knew it was just wishful thinking.

“We won’t,” Henry said, sorry to dash Bendy’s hopes, “but I don’t really want to kill anyone if I can avoid it.” 

"But what did she mean by that we would meet someone familiar?" Bendy asked.

“You’ll see,” Henry said sadly as they reached the elevator. 

**We’re going down to Level 14?** Buddy signed nervously. 

"Yeah, apparently. Let's just hope that nothing greets us there," Bendy nervously said.

 **That’s the home of the Projectionist! A giant projector-headed monster that stalks the darkness of the lower levels, especially flooded ones,** Buddy signed in alarm. **He’s extremely dangerous and attacks on sight. What the heck does Malice want down there?!**

“Ink hearts,” Henry replied immediately. 

"WHAT?!" Bendy yelled in fright.

“Yeah, apparently she uses them to _make herself perfect_ , or so she says,” Henry said casually, sounding annoyed. “I’m sure there are better ways, but she doesn’t believe that.” 

Bendy shuddered at the thought of it. "And SHE can't do this herself?!"

“Level 14 is flooded, so she can’t go down there without succumbing to the ink herself,” Henry explained. “Plus, I’m pretty sure Norman hates her.” 

"Wait, what… Norman's down there?!" Bendy shrieked.

“Yep. You know him?” Henry asked, surprised. 

"Norman was the one who found me in that infirmary after Buddy let me out. I hid there because I didn’t have anywhere else to go. Norman was the one who treated me like I was an actual person and gave me comfort.” Bendy was silent for a moment before asking, “Henry? Where's Norman?"

Henry sighed. “Do you really want the answer to that question?” he asked sadly. 

Bendy thought for a moment. He then looked Henry dead in the eye. "Yes, it's better to find out now than later. I just want whatever hard emotions to come out now rather than later and mess us all up by making you worry about me. Please. I need to know."

“Norman became the Projectionist,” Henry said finally, not looking at Bendy. 

There was nothing but silence until Bendy spoke up. "How in the only abyss did he turn into _that_?! Was it… Joey?"

Henry sighed. “Honestly? I don’t know anymore. It doesn’t feel like something my brother would do… But after all this? I don’t know…” 

"WOAH, WOAH, WOAH! WAIT! Joey's your WHAT now?!" Bendy exclaimed.

“My brother. You didn’t know that? I could have sworn I mentioned it before…” Henry seemed surprised that Bendy didn’t know. 

"Well, actually, no. No, you didn't. Which is _surprising_ since you seem full of info about almost _everything_ here in the studio!" Bendy said sarcastically, annoyed that this had never come up.

“Huh. Well, his parents died in a car crash and his little brother got adopted immediately, but nobody wanted Joey except for me, so I convinced my parents to adopt him. We became closer than best friends; we were brothers,” Henry said, a nostalgic look on his face. “We did everything together. To see him do this… It’s hard to believe it was really him!” 

Bendy made a forlorn face. He quietly whispered, "But I can…"

Henry held Bendy close. “I know. Believe me, I know,” he said sympathetically. “Maybe, if I got the chance, I could turn him around, but after all of this… I don’t know. It’s… just hard to believe that your brother is evil. It’d be like you coming back here to find out that Boris murdered the entire company and then turned it into a crooked empire.” 

Bendy thought about that for a moment or two then shuddered and held his head. His eyes threatened to fill up with tears, but he quickly wiped them away. 

“What’s wrong, Bendy?” Henry asked immediately.

Bendy waved it off, not wanting to worry his creator. "It's fine. It was just a thought. Nothing to worry about. And heads up. Our floor is coming." As he said this, it all got considerably darker.

Henry filed away the conversation to finish later and waited for the floor to come up. 

As the elevator slowed to a stop, Buddy cowered in the corner away from the door. 

“That’s not a good sign, is it?” Bendy asked Henry 

Henry shrugged as he stepped out of the elevator, the grate closing behind them. “He always does that. Come on, we have work to do.” 

Henry walked away from the elevator and headed to the stairs where they found an obviously dead Striker clone holding a cartoon heart. 

Bendy blinked a little in confusion and a little in horror. As Henry went to get the first inky heart from the dead clone, Bendy took a closer look at the lifeless creature. As he took a more proper look at it, he realized he recognized the face. It was—

"EDGAR?!" Bendy shrieked. "WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?! HOW'D THIS HAPPEN?! HENRY! WHAT HAPPENED TO HIM?!"

“Calm down, Bendy,” Henry said kindly. “That’s not Edgar. That’s a Striker. Like how Pipers look like Charley, remember? The real one is with your friend, remember? You told me that.” 

"Oh. Yeah. I forgot about that. But still… this is a little creepy for me," Bendy said.

“Come on. It’ll only get worse before it gets better, I’m afraid,” Henry sighed as he started down the stairs. 

They could hear the sound of film reels as a beast of a man with a projector for a head came out of one of the corridors. 

“Shhhh… There he is,” Malice whispered over the intercom. “The Projectionist. Skulking the darkness. You be sure to stay out of his light, if you don’t want trouble. Just bring me back the pieces I need.”

“He has a _name_ ,” Henry muttered as the intercom clicked off and the Projectionist started off into the maze once more. “It’s Norman. Maybe you should use it.” 

"Yeah, and then maybe he wouldn't hate your morphed up guts as much, Malice," Bendy said in a tone that would make your blood run cold.

Malice said nothing. 

Henry sighed again. “Let’s just get this over with.” 

They made their way down the stairs into the ink-filled level. Bendy was alarmed to find that it came up to Henry’s knees, the equivalent of Bendy’s neck. 

“Don’t worry, bud,” Henry assured him as he trudged through the ink. “I won’t let you fall.” 

"Thanks Henry. I just don't want to imagine what's or who's swimming through this stuff," Bendy said as he looked down at the inky gunk.

“Yeah, I don’t think that’d be fun for you,” Henry agreed, looking out for the Projectionist. He knew that if _he_ died himself, he’d just come back, but Bendy? There was no sure way to know without getting the toon killed, and he wasn’t willing to risk that. Miracle Station would be the safest bet here. 

As they trudged through the ink they came across a large box in the hallway. On it sat another recording. And Bendy was all too eager to press the 'play' button. He looked to Henry pleadingly with his big pie cut eyes.

Henry chuckled. “All right. Here you go. You can press the button.”

He placed Bendy down on the box next to the tape 

Bendy whisper-yelled, "YES!" and pumped his fist in the air and pressed the button while he said, "Click," at the same time.

Norman Polk’s voice rang out through the inky corridors as the recording played: 

**Now, I’m not lookin’ for trouble. It’s just the nature of us Projectionists to seek out the dark places.**

**You see, I’ve learned the ins and outs of this here studio. I know how to avoid being bothered by the likes of this… company.**

**That projectionist, they always say, creeping around, he’s just looking for trouble. Well, trouble or not, I sees everything. They don’t even know when I’m watching.**

**Even when I’m right behind ‘em.**

The recording clicked off, and Norman’s voice was gone once more. 

Bendy had a perplexed look on his face. Was that some ominous warning of what's to come? He saw that Henry was on edge looking both left and right like someone was spying on them.

"Henry? You okay? What's going on?" Bendy asked.

“It’s nothing. It’s just… Norman always knew how to put a person on edge, and the Projectionist… isn’t exactly friendly,” Henry said nervously as he picked Bendy up again. 

When nothing happened, Henry relaxed slightly. “He’s probably still in the—” 

An inhuman screech sounded off behind them and Henry whipped around to see the Projectionist charging at him and Bendy. Acting on instinct, Henry ran into the maze. 

Bendy tucked into Henry’s arm, yelling Norman’s name as they sloshed through the ink. Norman didn’t respond other than screaming at them. 

“Where is it…?!” Henry muttered. “That dang thing has to be around here somewhere… It’s not like Miracle Stations just get up and move…” 

“There!” Bendy shouted, pointing at the Miracle Station. 

Henry dashed into the Miracle Station and slammed the door shut just as the Projectionist caught up to them. His breath hitched as the creature drew closer to the door, grabbing the handle. 

“Please stay closed, please stay closed, _please stay closed_!” Henry whispered as Bendy was busy trying to control his breathing. 

The Projectionist jiggled the handle for a moment before getting bored and then wandering off, allowing the duo to actually _breathe_. 

“I think… we’re safe…” Henry whispered, reaching for the door to open it. 

The door didn’t budge. 

“Odd…” Henry muttered, pushing hard. “That’s never happened before…” 

“What is it, Henry?” Bendy asked. 

“The door is jammed. It won’t open. Guess we’re stuck here for a little while until the door decides to open,” Henry said with a sigh. 

“At least we’re not stuck on the outside, right?” Bendy asked. 

Henry chuckled. “Yeah. At least we’re not out there with him.” 

Their chuckles died off, and they sat in silence before Bendy noticed something. 

Next to them on the bench was a photo of seven people—one of them was clearly Henry, though he had a significantly smaller amount of grey hairs—and one of Henry, another man, and two women, though that one was much older. There was also one of a large smiling group of people in front of Joey Drew Studios. 

He picked them up. He stared at them with wonder and confusion in his eyes. Then he asked, "Hey, Henry? What's up with these pictures of you? And were they here before?"

Henry hummed thoughtfully as he took the photos from him. “They must have fallen out of my pocket,” he said, running his thumb over each in turn. 

Bendy waited for him to say something more, but when he didn’t, he prompted, “Did you leave them here on the previous runthrough? And who are those people?"

“No, I didn’t leave them here. I keep them in my shirt pocket at all times,” he said, looking at the photos fondly. “Which one do you want to know about first?” 

"Hmmm, how about the one with the most people? The one where you're younger?" Bendy asked.

Henry chuckled. “That’s two different ones, Bendy. Do you mean the one with me, Joey, Linda, and Diana or the one of the staff in front of Joey Drew Studios for our fifth anniversary?” 

"Hmmm, let's go with the fifth anniversary one!" Bendy exclaimed excitedly.

Henry smiled. “Well, you see, this was the fifth anniversary of our first cartoon starring you, so the original staff decided to go outside and get a picture. If you look here, you can see me, Sammy, Susie, Norman, Wally, Linda, Shawn, Grant, Jack, and Thomas. And there, right next to me, is my brother Joey. He and I are holding up the reel to our first cartoon: Bendy the Dancing Demon. We were so excited. Everyone was happy, and Linda and Diana and Thomas’s girlfriend Allison all brought treats for the whole studio. It was a wonderful day.” 

Bendy smiled fondly. "That sounds like fun! Wish I could've been there instead of being in the reel…” Bendy looked at the picture and caressed his one toonish finger over the picture. "I wish could've seen everyone in their prime…" Bendy then looked up to Henry and asked, "What's the other picture?"

Henry pulled up the one of him, black-haired brown-eyed Joey, red-haired green-eyed Linda, and brown-haired blue-eyed Diana. “This one is of me, Joey, my wife Linda, and her sister Diana. We were on our day off, and Linda and I were trying to get Joey and Diana to admit their love for each other. It didn’t work, but we still had a lot of fun that day.” 

Bendy made a face that both read as confused and a bit disgusted. Kinda like a child seeing their parents kiss in front of them. "First off. Joey actually _liked_ someone?! Second, that said someone actually liked him back?! Plus, tell me more about Linda! Since you said she's your wife, it sounds like she could be my mom! Never had a mom before!" Bendy said the last part more for himself as he thought about it gleefully.

“Woah there, tiger! Slow down!” Henry laughed. “One question at a time! Yes, Joseph Anthony Drew liked Diana Isabel Ozell, and she liked him back, not that either had the guts to say it to the other. Is it really so hard to believe that Joey had people that cared about him?” 

Bendy gave him the _Really_ look and promptly replied, "Yes, yes it is. NOW ANSWER THE OTHER QUESTION!!!!! I WANNA KNOW ABOUT MY POSSIBLE MOM!" Bendy impatiently exclaimed.

Henry laughed, full of light and mirth. It was a happy sound in this dark, solemn place. “Rosalinda Elena Ozell is a fiery ball of passion and love. Anyone who gets in the way of her and her family better watch out. She became a nurse so that she could help people, and eventually worked at Joey Drew Studios after one too many incidents in the studio. She’d have a fit if she saw this place now, especially the horrid conditions of her infirmary. She’s not afraid to speak her mind in any of the three languages she speaks fluently: english, español, and american sign language. In fact, if I’m not mistaken, she’s the one who taught me sign language, though I am rustier than she would have let me get if she was around. She is very tender to those she takes care of, especially our children. Hold on, this other photo is of my family.” 

Henry pulled out the photo of seven people and Bendy glimpsed some writing on the underside. 

"What does it say? I'm not exactly the type of toon that's very educated if you know what I mean." Bendy said in a tone that begged his creator what the writing said.

Henry rolled his eyes. “You and I both know you can read fine, Bendy. In fact, you’re the one who wrote that.” He turned it over to show the words, **This is what you’re fighting for.**

"Really?! When did I write this?" Bendy asked confused at what his creator told him.

“Uh, three hundred or so loops ago, I think. I had finally realized that no matter what I did, no matter what I said, no matter what I _tried_ , I was never getting out. This was a hopeless endeavor. I had laid down in that room with the pentagram and had no intention of getting back up again,” Henry said with a sigh. “I had given up. 

“But then you came up behind me, probably wondering why I hadn’t gotten past Sammy yet, and I didn’t even run. You stared at me for a few minutes before leaving again, and I didn’t even care. I laid there for another hour at least before you came back and laid a piece of paper by me and left again. I sat up and looked at it only to find that it was a photo of my family and on the back were those words: _This is what you’re fighting for._ Since then, no matter what happened that got in my way, I have never stopped fighting to get back to them. After all, they’re waiting for me. If I stopped, I knew that I would never see them again, and I wasn’t ready to accept defeat. I’m not now either.” 

Bendy was proud of his creator for his perseverance and bravery. But he wished that he had at least _some_ memories of what happened on that loop when he was still a full demon. What was he thinking at that time? Why did he do it? Was he in full control of himself then and somehow Joey wasn't manipulating him? There were about a dozen or so questions swirling around in his tooney mind. But right now, he needed to know who was in the picture. He wanted to know his human family! "So, uh, Henry? Who's all in the picture?" he asked innocently.

“Well, right there is your mother, Linda,” Henry replied, pointing to the lady with her red hair in a bun on her knees behind two of the children. “She would love you if she ever met you.” 

Bendy had stars in his eyes. That was HIS mother. And she was so pretty! "I can't wait to meet her!!!" he said excitedly.

“One day, buddy. One day. And in front of her are the twins, Alex and Katie,” Henry said as he pointed to a brown-haired boy and girl with green eyes and tons of freckles. “They were seven when the photo was taken. Alex there is a little handyman, always banging his toy tools on things. He also can’t seem to stop eating, but that’s because he’s a growing boy. His full name is actually Alexander Boris Stein.” He watched Bendy, waiting for his reaction. 

Bendy gasped long and hard and the stars in his pie cut eyes only got bigger, if that was possible. "YOU NAMED HIM AFTER BORIS?! THAT'S SUPER COOL AND SWEET OF YOU HENRY!!!" Bendy gave him a hug and said, "I can't wait to meet him! I can't wait to meet all of them!!!" Bendy at this point was like a jumping bean in Henry's lap.

“Calm down, there are still more I have to tell you about,” Henry laughed. “Katie, her full name being Katherine Alice Stein, is a dancer like you. If there was music on, she was dancing. She would use anything around her as she danced, and we eventually enrolled her in ribbon dancing and ballet, though I have a feeling that tap is on her list too. You’re her favorite character, after all.” 

Bendy had a mixture of happiness and pride in his heart but he couldn't help the little tears of joy that escaped the corners of his tooney eyes. She was the perfect combo of his creator, himself, and Alice. And that made his day. Especially when Alice was a part of the factor. The more he thought of the tooney angel, his blush grew. He hoped Henry didn't notice it.

Henry chuckled but said nothing about the blush crossing his son toon’s face. “Katie also loves to sing. You’ll always find her with a song in her head,” he said with a smile before moving on. “Now, the girl with the long black hair hiding one of her violet eyes in between me and Linda is Lucille Eleanor Stein, my little artist. I gave her a sketchbook for her seventh birthday and it was already full of drawings of you, Alice, Boris, and the Butcher Gang, not to mention her own characters, Echo, Gillen, and Iona by the time this was taken when she was eight. She may one day surpass my abilities, I dare say. She would be a brilliant animator, should she choose that path.” 

"That's awesome, Henry! She's like a little you! But where'd the black hair and violet eyes come from? Like, which side of the family does she take after?"

“Mine. My mother’s grey eyes were tinged with violet to go with her black hair,” Henry replied, pleased that Bendy wanted to know more about his family. “Now, the girl in my lap with the curly red hair in pigtails and blue eyes is my precious little Julia Symphony Stein. She was so happy, always smiling, the perfect child. Her imagination made stories I could never dream of. And her laugh! It was her mother’s laugh. She had the voice of an angel, until…” Henry trailed off, a dark sorrow in his eyes. 

"Until what…?" Bendy asked tentatively, worry laced in his tone.

“Until about a month before the photo was taken, she was taken from our home. She was missing for a week, and when we found her… She was found by the police in a warehouse after they were given an anonymous tip. They discovered her behind a few boxes with that boy, Orios Drew,” Henry said as he pointed to the black-haired boy with grey eyes sitting next to Julia in the photo, a tentative smile on his face, “holding her in his arms. She hasn’t spoken a word since. All we could get out of Orios on the subject was that the men who had been holding them captive had done something to her voice. She will never speak again. All because of those _selfish no-goods_.” Henry slammed his hand into the door in anger, his eyes smoldering with fury. 

Bendy jumped as Henry took his anger out on the wood. 

“They did it to a child, Bendy,” Henry whispered, tears beading up in his eyes. “They have hurt her and no amount of medical work can fix it. My little Jewel is gone. I saw it in her eyes when we were reunited. Julia, the one I loved from a babe, was dead. I would never see her again.” 

As Henry began to calm down, Bendy began to think on what Henry said. Then alarm bells rang out in Bendy's head. Literally. Henry could see the bells in his eyes. 

“What is it, Bendy?” Henry asked, his anger ebbing away.

"First off, who's Orios Drew?! What, did Joey have a kid or something?!" Bendy all but yelled.

“No, no,” Henry said with a chuckle. “He told us that he was the son of Michael Drew, Joey’s brother, but that didn’t change anything in Linda’s eyes. Since Michael is dead and Joey was MIA, she decided that she would adopt the young Drew. Besides, Julia was very attached to him the first two weeks after being rescued. She wouldn’t leave his side for _anything_. Linda couldn’t bear to tear them apart. So he became a part of our family. And yours, Bendy, so be nice to him when you meet him.” Henry gave him a stern look. 

"Alright. If he doesn't bully me, then I'm fine with him." Bendy reluctantly agreed.

“Now, I have a feeling that wasn’t the only thing that went off in your head,” Henry said knowingly. 

"Well, uh, I _might_ have a theory as to who kidnapped Julia."

Henry sat straight up. “What? How? What do you mean?” 

Bendy wasn't sure if this was a good idea. But his creator had every right to know what happened to his little girl. "Well, a little while before you came back to the studio, I was wanderin' the halls and I accidentally came too close to Joey’s office on the bottom floor. At the time, my mind was a complete mess, I couldn't focus straight! And if you didn't say her name, I probably wouldn't have remembered this part. And for good reason…" Bendy hesitated and Henry seemed to grow more impatient.

Bendy sighed. "I overheard a conversation going on between Joey and some of those Searchers you talked about. He ordered them to kidnap her. And before I could do anything about it, well, let's just say that Joey caught me and well, he punished me. And afterwards, he did something else." At this point, Henry had gone completely emotionless and Bendy was debating on whether he should continue.

“What exactly did he do?” Henry asked quietly. In all honesty, Bendy thought this was scarier than his anger. Henry was never meant to be this blank. 

“He… He… He did _something_ to me. I don’t remember what, but it _hurt_. It felt like he tore a piece of me away. And then after that there was nothing but darkness. So much darkness, trapping me, surrounding me, drowning me, filling me with it to the point that I couldn’t tell where I ended and it began,” Bendy said, his piecut eyes filling with inky tears that threatened to overflow.

Henry’s expression softened as he pulled his toon in close. “Oh, Bendy…” he began, but Bendy wasn’t done. 

“I thought I would never escape,” he admitted as he clung to Henry’s shirt, inky black tears beginning to run down his white cheeks. “I thought I’d be trapped there for the rest of eternity, dying and being reborn over and over again in an agonizing cycle. That seemed to be my fate, until… you. You came and rescued me from the darkness. You pulled me out. That demon from earlier… We both know that’s not who I am. It was my prison. You were the only one that had the key. I… Thank you, Henry.” 

“For what?” Henry asked. 

“For saving me. I… I promise, that whatever happens, I will help you get back to them, no matter what happens to me,” Bendy said determinedly. 

Henry smiled. “In that case, you’re coming with me. I’m not leaving you here for them. You’re family too.” 

Bendy was beaming. "Really?! You're not just yankin' my chain, right?!" he asked almost pleadingly. 

Henry looked down on him with a gentle smile. "Yes, Bendy. You're my toon. Unless, you don’t want to be family, in which case, I won’t say another word about it—“ 

"NO!!! Are ya kiddin' me?! Of course I want to be there! I wanna see what Lucy draws next! I wanna help little Katie with her performing! I wanna see what kinda _mischief_ me and Alex can get into with his little tools. And most importantly I wanna help little Julia find her _voice_ and love for the world again! I wanna be your family toon!"

Henry laughed. “I knew you would. I bet the kids will love you. Though…” Henry’s face fell as he went on, “I doubt that they’re still _little_ after how many loops I've been through…” 

"How many years do you think have past since all this hoopla began?" Bendy asked sincerely.

Henry sighed. “At least eight?” he guessed. 

"Oh, geez. How old do you think they are now?" Bendy wondered out loud.

“Lucy is 17, Katie and Alex are 15, and Jules and Orios are 13. I… I missed their entire childhoods,” Henry said, and a Bendy swore he heard a hitch in his creator’s voice and tears in his eyes as he brushed his callused ink-stained hands over the picture of his family. 

Bendy looked up to his creator with empathy in his eyes. He reached up and carefully brushed away the tears that flowed from Henry's eyes before giving him a tight hug around his torso. "You still have me though. And when we get outta here, you'll have more of us to take care of. I promise."

Henry chuckled wetly. “You can’t promise that.” 

Bendy frowned and knitted his figurative brows. "YES, I CAN! I PROMISE YOU THAT BY THE END OF THIS MESS, WE'LL ALL GET OUT AND LIVE LIFE THE WAY IT SHOULD'VE BEEN!!!"

“You cannot control fate, my dear Benjamin. It is just the way of the world,” Henry said sadly. 

Bendy narrowed his eyes and something in him finally snapped. He grabbed, well, more like squished together Henry's cheeks and said, "One, It's Bendy. Why in the world would you call me **_Benjamin_**?!" Bendy said the last name with disgust and confusion.

Henry blinked. “Did I call you that? I apologize. I was just… remembering…” 

Bendy looked at him with confusion. "Okay? Well I'm going to come back to that later. As in my third question later. Secondly! If Joey can make a magical toon out of ink, **_I_ **think that we can best his little game of Fate. And you know darn well that when I put my mind on something, I get to it!"

Bendy took a deep inhale of breath and continued, "Thirdly, what sort of memories did that name bring up anyhow?"

Henry shook off his shock at being scolded by his cartoon creation and replied, “Many years ago, Linda and I were going to have a baby boy. He was going to be our youngest. But two weeks before he was meant to be born, his heartbeat didn’t come up at Linda’s checkup. He… he had died, Bendy. He was meant to be named Benjamin, a more traditional form of your name that no one would question. He was to be named after you. I… I had hoped that he would be a little like you, but alas, he was never to get the chance to grow up.” 

Bendy was shocked but at the same time, so sad! He couldn't keep the tears at bay and cried softly into Henry's shirt. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry!" He whispered softly.

“Don’t apologize,” Henry said kindly. “I like to think that Benjamin lives on in you, my dear Bendy. And that makes his loss a little easier.” 

Bendy continued his soft sobs quietly while silently praying that the big man upstairs was taking care of little Benny.

“Shh… Don’t cry, Bendy. I think… I think you might be our little Benjamin. How would you like that?” Henry asked softly. 

Bendy looked up to Henry with expectant eyes. "R-really? You really mean it?"

“Of course, Bendy. As soon as we get out of here, you can be our little Benjamin. You’ll have a family. But first, we have to get out of this Miracle Station.” 

Henry pushed on the door, and to his surprise, it actually opened. “Huh. Must have hit it harder than I thought earlier.” 

Bendy narrowed his eyes and took a closer look at the door and noticed something. He noticed that the hinges on the door were barely hanging on! The hinges were literally hanging on by mere splinters. "Uhhh, Henry? I think you did a lot more than just hit it hard…"

Henry stared. “Um… Oops?” he said sheepishly. 

Bendy rolled his eyes. “That’s not an _oops_. You tore the door off its hinges! Come on. We have to find the other hearts.” 

It took them half an hour and a ton more dodging crazy projector to find the hearts. But there, down in the inky abyss that was Level 14, they found a recording that was unmarked, but they recognized the voices as soon as it was played, and Henry knew exactly where it had taken place as soon as he had heard the first line: 

**Cora: Dat’s a long way down… Why do dey need a chasm in an animation studio anyway?**

**Joey: Oh, I don’t know… How about to get rid of nosey little girls who don’t know how to get stay out of other people’s business!**

**Cora: What—Wait! What ‘er ya—NOOOOOO!! LET ME GO—HELP!!! SOMEBODY!!! ANYBODY!!! PLEASE!!!**

**Joey: *laughs* You know what I like best about this place? No one can hear you scream!**

**Cora: *screaming fades until it can no longer be heard***

**Joey: Finally. I can be rid of that little girl and her sister will be mine.**

**???: *shuffling noises***

**Joey: What… Norman?! What are you doing?! Why are you here?! What… GIVE ME THAT RECORDING!!!**

**??? (Norman): Alliyah… needs… to know… what you… really are… Joseph… Anthony… Drew…**

**Joey: And you need to learn your place, Norman Polk!**

**Norman: *running and metallic clunking* *silence* I… have to tell… the others… the sister… is dead… She will… join us… soon…**

Henry and Bendy stared at the recording. 

“And I thought the other ones were creepy…” Bendy shivered. 

“Yeah. I guess we know what happened to Cora Nixen,” Henry said sadly. 

Bendy sighed and looked around for Norman, instead finding something that he _knew_ wasn’t there a second ago. “Um… Henry?” Bendy stammered, drawing Henry’s attention to the message on the wall: 

**If you fall in the Studio, and nobody’s around, did it really ever happen?**

**Did you even make a** **_sound_** **?**

Henry stared at the writing. Who wrote this and why? He shuddered at its context. 

Bendy looked at the wall with uncertainty, trying to take in the mysterious but creepy clue. "Henry…? Besides Norman, who else do you think is following us?"

Henry shrugged. “Illusion? Mutilated monsters? I can’t think of anyone else… Wait.” He stood stock still as realization dawned in his green eyes. “The talking floor… It said it was a _toon_ …” 

Bendy raised a toonish brow at Henry. "Hold up, what? The _talking floor_ said it was a _toon_?” Bendy questioned.

“It was before I turned on the machine,” Henry explained. “I was in the power room and ink on the floor read _Are you sure you want to do this?_ I answered, not expecting it to change and reply. The conversation ended with it saying it was a toon and me leaving the room. Maybe… Maybe this toon is following us?” 

Bendy thought hard on this before an idea popped into his head. "Well if they're following us, maybe they'll watch our backs when we go give the hearts to Malice?" Bendy asked hopefully.

Henry nodded thoughtfully. “I hope so. In the meantime… let’s not worry too much about this, okay? Maybe… Maybe it doesn’t mean anything.”

"I don't know, Henry…" Bendy said nervously. "Let's just keep it in mind just in case. You never know what's going to happen now that it's a different run from all the other loops. Anyways, we kept Buddy waiting long enough." 

Henry nodded. “Let’s get going.” 

Minutes later, they were in front of Malice’s drop box. 

“Tell me, were they still writhing in your hands?” Malice asked gleefully. “Could you feel the pulse of life as you held them?” 

Bendy made a face of disgusted disdain and whispered quietly to Henry, "Is she serious?"

Henry nodded grimly. “Completely.” 

“Give them to me,” Malice said eagerly. “Then I will let you ascend.” 

Henry hesitated. 

“Why aren’t you giving me the hearts?” Malice asked, her voice cold. 

“What if you didn’t need them? What if I could help you? We could find a way to reverse this,” Henry pleaded. “Just don’t do this. Don’t do whatever you do with the hearts. Spare the last bit of humanity you have left and come with us, taste freedom again. Don’t you want that, Susie?” 

“ _Susie_ is **dead**!” Malice screamed. “ _Joey_ killed her! I am Alice Angel! I’m the bell of the ball, the demon’s gift from above! I… I am all that’s left…” 

Bendy thought hard about what she yelled. "Uh… question. Now that I think about it, how can you be a demon's gift from above if demons live in the exact opposite from Heaven?" 

“IT _DOESN’T MATTER_!” Malice screeched. “I’M THE _ANGEL_! I’M SUPPOSED TO BE _PERFECT_! AND I WON’T LET YOU **_STOP ME_**!” 

Henry hurriedly put the hearts in the box and grabbed Bendy before scurrying into the elevator. “Nope! This is not our loop. Not our loop at all.” 

"What happens now?” Bendy asked from Henry's arms.

“Okay, now whatever happens, if Malice lies, Bendy, hide, and Buddy, run. If something happens to me, leave me there. I’ll be fine,” Henry said in a low tone, his gaze hard. 

"What do you mean, Henry?" Bendy asked worriedly. "Why? What's going on—" 

"You _promised_ me, Bendy!" Henry exploded, his voice full of desperation and his eyes darting around like a caged animal. "You _promised_ me that you would do whatever I said, Bendy! Please, for all that is good in this blasted studio, just give me this _one_ thing. Please." 

Bendy stared. Was Henry... _pleading_ with him? His perfect creator... was _scared_! He had never seen this before, this fear, this caginess, this sudden desperation, but he knew he never wanted to see it again, no matter what it took to make that so.

"Okay. I will," Bendy promised. 

Henry sighed in relief. "Thank you, Bendy. Thank you." He looked at Buddy hopefully. 

Buddy hesitated, then nodded. **I'll run, but only for a little while. Then I'll come back.**

Henry nodded gratefully. He knew that was the best he was going to get. 

The elevator began to ascend, and Henry watched the ceiling fearfully as Malice's voice came over the intercom. 

“Have you ever wondered what Heaven is like?” Malice asked softly, some of Susie's real voice bleeding through. “I like to dream that it's quite beautiful. A soft valley of green grass, blanketed by a warm sun. I don't think I'll ever get to see it... Are you ready to ascend, my little errand boys? The heavens are waiting.”

There was a quiet pause before it sounded like she began to cry. Bendy's heart throbbed with grief as he listened to her sob. She sounded so sorrowful, so broken, so full of despair. Maybe she was’t as bad as he had originally thought. Maybe she was just consumed by the ink and Joey's selfish desire, just like so many others who were trapped in this abyss...

Like his his poor creator Henry, who he was beginning to see was more affected by the loops than he let on. He looked at the man only to see absolute terror plastered on his face. Why was Henry so worried? They were getting out—

“ _Heh…_ ** _hehehehehahahahAHAHAHAHAHA!_** _”_

Oh. _That_ was what Henry was afraid of. Dang it. 

Without warning the elevator plunged downward, moving _way_ too fast to be normal as if the breaks and cords holding the lift had snapped while the metal sides scraped hard against the walls of the lift, sending up sparks. Boris covered his eyes while Bendy clung tightly to Henry as they fell.

“Did you really think I'd let you _steal_ from me?!” Malice screamed over the screeching of the metal. “Did you really think I'd just _let you go_?! _No,_ _Henry!_ I _know_ who you are! And I _know_ why you're here! And you will not stop what needs to be done!”

Bendy was shocked. Malice knew who Henry was?! Heck, she even knew his _name?!_ And what had happened to letting them go? They had had a deal! 

Henry's heart sunk as he held Bendy close to him. He had hoped, _just once_ , that Malice might change her mind, but no, that was not meant to be. There was a script, after all, and it had to be followed. 

“Now come down and bring me back my Boris! It's the most perfect Boris I've ever seen, and I want it! I need it. I need its insides so that I can be _beautiful_ again! Don't you understand? Give him to me!! Or better yet, I'll _take_ him! **Once... you're... _dead!!_** "

"I'm sorry, Buddy," Henry whispered before the elevator hit the ground, and all was dark.

When Henry opened his eyes, Buddy was shaking him awake. He could see Bendy half trapped under rubble breathing irregularly, which worried him. He tried to tell Buddy to run and hide, but he couldn’t make his mouth form the words. A sick sense of dread filled him as Malice approached and took Buddy away. 

_Please... Buddy... forgive me..._ was Henry’s last thought as he fell unconscious again, deep down in the darkness. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY CHAPTER 3 IS OVER! I must know though. Did that make up for the silence?  
> Let me know what you think.  
> Next time, things get interesting. The Keeper of the Abyss has been watching, and decided things got interesting enough to intervene...  
> The game is getting **_interesting..._**


	9. The Things That Change Us

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> _One conversation, a single moment,  
>  The things that change us if we notice,  
>  When we look up, sometimes._
> 
> _They said I would never make it,_  
>  But I was built to break the mold.  
>  The only dream that I've been chasing is my own.
> 
> __
> 
> \- Alicia Keys, _Underdog_ 2020 
> 
> __
> 
> Change is constant. All living things know this. But is it always a bad thing?
> 
> __

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi. I know, it's been a couple of months, but I have been working on a lot of stuff lately. Brainstorming for my novels, hanging out with friends, learning to play the string bass, designing characters, playing with the school band, creating _FIFTY-SIX OTHER FRICKING AU'S BECAUSE MY BRAIN DOESN'T KNOW HOW TO STOP--_  
>  Ahem. I know, that's not an excuse, but I am back (thanks to Pokegirl, I am grateful you reminded me to keep writing this) and I brought new characters with me! I won't give names, as they're integral to my secret lore, but I can't wait for you to meet them.  
> If you want to listen to the song in this chapter, it's called Stand Up by Cynthia Erivo. It's from Harriet, and I thought it was fitting as it has themes with slavery and the Freedom Road and they're fighting to get free and get somewhere else where they can not have to worry about the darkness of the studio.  
> Anyhoo... Enjoy!

Henry opened his eyes to see an inky black abyss. Great. He had died again. Just peachy. 

He sighed. Maybe he could just close his eyes and forget about the world for a while—

“No! Bendy needs you! You can’t give up now!”

His eyes snapped open again. Who was that? He tried to call out and ask who was there, but he couldn’t get the words to form in his throat. 

“I’m… a friend,” the voice said as if reading his mind, “but that’s not important. Malice took Boris.” 

Who cared? She always took Boris. He could never save the wolf. Why bother this time? 

“Because Boris isn’t the only one you have to worry about! Bendy is there too!” 

Bendy? What was wrong with Bendy? Henry couldn’t remember what had happened to the demon. Was something wrong? 

“Not yet,” the voice admitted, “but there will be something wrong when Malice realizes that Bendy is _perfect_ and takes him to make herself beautiful again! So get your stubborn butt out of the puddles and save him!” 

Henry surged up in alarm. Bendy! Bendy was a perfect toon all alone with no one to defend him! He had to get back to him before that twisted angel got her inky hands on him! 

“That’s right. Keep fighting,” the voice said in relief. “This studio needs you, Henry. We all need you to keep fighting. One day, you will find the exit, and you will set us free.” 

Henry swam toward the light and sat up straight in front of the unusable elevator, breathing hard. It took him a moment to realize where he was, and when he did, he nearly sobbed in relief to see Bendy nearby, untouched by the angel. 

“Bendy!” he cried, pulling the toon out of the wreckage. “Bendy, are you all right?”

Bendy slowly opened his eyes and stared up at Henry. "Henry? Where… where are we?"

“Floor S,” Henry said, glad to see that the toon wasn’t hurt. “Malice’s domain.” 

If a toon could pale then Bendy would've looked like a ghost by now. "How… how are we going to get out of this one Henry?! And… and where's Buddy?!"

Henry sighed. “Malice… Malice has him. She took him before I passed out, I couldn’t stop her. I’m sorry.” 

At those words, Bendy‘s gaze hardened. "Well what are we standing around for?! Let's get him back before she does anything to him like with… Boris…"

“Bendy… Do you remember how I told you about the loops?” Henry asked quietly. 

Bendy quirked a brow and said, "Yeah, what about it?"

Henry opened his mouth and saw the determined look in Bendy’s eyes. He was so sure that they’d save Buddy… So hopeful… He couldn’t squash that. Not when this time might be different. 

Instead, Henry shook his head. “Never mind. It’s nothing. We should get moving, bud.” 

Bendy couldn't help but notice that Henry was keeping something from him, but he shook it off, grabbed Henry's hand and pulled him along to find their friend. 

Henry himself found that the toon's newfound strength, both physically and mentally to be something surprising. But deep down, he couldn't be more proud of his little darling.

“Uh… This way,” Henry said, leading Bendy down the hall. 

The crossway led to Accounting on the right and Research & Design on the left. 

"Okay Henry. Which way? We have to get there fast if we want to save Buddy!" Bendy urged.

“We have to get a wheel from Grant’s office,” Henry said. “Watch your step. It’s… not great…” 

"Whaddya mean…? Oh.” Bendy went silent as they stepped into the office. 

There was writing all over the walls, numbers and equations, ramblings about how it didn’t add up and all the taxes. Ink was splattered everywhere, and a mass of bubbling ink sat on the table next to an audio tape.

"Yeesh, and this another reason I don't like math…" Bendy commented, but he was distracted by the ink on the desk. "Henry, what's that mass of ink? And why does it have an audiotape next to it?"

“Uh… I actually have no idea,” Henry admitted, distracted as he grabbed the wheel to the door down the hall, but he froze as he registered the second question. “Wait, don’t touch that—“ 

Too late. Bendy pressed play and unholy screams ripped through the room, shrieks of agony tearing through their ear drums. It went on for mere minutes but it felt like an eternity before the room went silent again. 

"What in the world was THAT?!" Bendy shrieked.

“That… I think it was Grant, but I don’t know,” Henry admitted. 

Bendy looked at the recorder in horror. "W-what happened to him?!"

Henry shook his head. “No idea. I just try not to think about it too hard. I mean, do you realize how many hundreds of people Joey must have used for his experiments? It’s… terrible to think about.” 

Bendy looked cautiously at the boiling puddle of ink on the desk. "Uh, not to sound too dark or morbid here, but, what're the odds that this puddle _is_ Grant?"

“Not very high. I highly doubt he became that. I mean, everyone else became searchers or Bori or lost ones. That bubbling ink mass being someone… doesn’t seem likely.” 

"Then… what _is_ it?" Bendy questioned, his horror mixed with curiosity.

Henry shrugged. “Ink from the machine, ink from a dead ink monster--who knows? It could be anything.” 

Bendy didn't say anything else about the issue. He figured to let sleeping dogs lie. "What now?" He asked Henry.

“Now, we go open the door,” Henry said as he led his way out of the room and back to the intersection. Instead of turning back toward the elevator, he went straight on to a door missing a handle.

“Here’s how we open the door,” he said, attaching the handle and twisting it to get the door open. 

"Is it me or does this feel like Joey is making this into some sort of sick and twisted puzzle game?" Bendy asked incredulously.

Henry chuckled mirthlessly as he picked Bendy up and walked through the door. “You are not the only one.” 

"So, what's on the other side? Is Buddy not too far?" Bendy asked hopefully.

“We’re going to be a while before we see Buddy,” Henry said apologetically. “We just got to keep on trekking. Soon, we’ll see him again.”

Bendy seemed a bit down after that. He didn't say anything else after that, making the trip a solemn kind of silence.

The duo watched as lights lit up figures of ink frozen in a sort of worship on a stage around a Bendy statue underneath a banner that read **He will set us free** and creepy music played in the background. 

Henry shivered. “I always thought this part seemed kind of wrong,” he muttered. 

"Henry? W-what is this? This looks like Sammy's department times ten!" Bendy shrieked.

“Yeah, just don’t mess with them and they’ll leave you alone,” Henry said as he walked around the stage. “Hopefully.” 

Bendy then whispered into Henry's ear, "What if they realize I'm the one they're worshipping? And honestly, I'm still trying to get used to that."

“Then you let them fangirl over you until I open the door, I guess?” Henry said with a shrug. “They’re usually harmless.” 

He walked into the library behind the stage and into a room with a small table, a recording laying on top. 

"Is it possible to play the recording without setting them off?" Bendy asked nervously.

Henry nodded. “It’s fine. You won’t set anyone or anything off.” 

Bendy sighed in relief and pressed play, causing Susie Campbell’s voice to ring out through the room, full of malice and disgust. 

> **“They told me I was perfect for the role. Absolutely** **_perfect._ **
> 
> **“Now Joey’s going around saying things behind closed doors. I can always tell.**
> 
> **“Now he wants to meet again tomorrow, says he has an** **_opportunity_ ** **for me. I’ll hear him out. But if that smooth talker thinks he can double-cross an angel and get away with it, well, oh he’s got another thing coming.**
> 
> **“Alice,** **_ooh_ ** **, she doesn’t like liars.”**

The tape clicked off, and Bendy sighed. 

“He tricked her good, huh?” he said sadly. 

“Yep,” Henry agreed. “She never had a chance. The thing is, that Joey that she talks about there on the tapes, he’s not like the Joey I knew. My Joey was rambunctious and impulsive, sure, but that one she speaks of seems like a master manipulator, a king of the long game. It… It’s shocking, the differences between my memories and these tapes.” 

Bendy nodded. “I know what you mean. It would be so weird to hear Boris act out of character, even if I only left for a little while.” He looked at Henry. “How… how long were you even gone, Henry?” 

Henry grimaced, but quietly replied, “Thirty years.” 

Bendy’s eyes widened. “ _Thirty_?!” he repeated breathlessly. “But… But why?! Why did you leave? Why didn’t you come back?!” 

Henry sighed and got down in front of Bendy. “You see… I got into a bit of a fight with Joey one day, and it ended with me leaving in anger. I planned on coming back the next day after I calmed down, but Linda decided she was going to go check on Joey. She walked into his office with a chocolate pie―his favorite―intending to give it to him, and he took the pie and smashed it into the wall before telling her to get out. We… We didn’t really want to go back after that. And then I was drafted, and then I became a POW, and when I finally got home, I felt like only a shell of my former self. I… I couldn’t get myself to go back, not while I was like that. A few years later, the studio closed down, and that was that. I… I didn’t know he was still here, making this prison and torturing the inhabitants. Maybe if I had… I might have come back sooner…” Tears began to bead at the corners of his eyes as Henry continued, trying to hide the hitching in his voice. “M-maybe… Maybe I could have stopped this before it got this far…” 

Bendy watched as silent tears fell down Henry’s face and his heart ached. This… This… This was worse than his anger or his fear or anything else Bendy had seen come from the man because this just… slipped out, and you could tell that Henry was just so tired and so broken, and he could almost feel the sorrow and regret that were filling those tears and quiet sobs, and it _hurt_. Wanting to make his creator stop hurting, he stepped up to him and hugged the older man’s neck, smiling softly as a pair of strong but gentle arms pulled him closer into a tight embrace. 

“It’s okay, Henry,” Bendy whispered. “These _what if_ ’s and _maybe'_ s don’t matter, because you can’t change the past. What matters is that you’re here now, and you’re trying to fix it. That’s all you can do. And I want you to know that I forgive you for leaving and for not coming back. It’s okay. I forgive you.” 

Bendy could feel the shaking of Henry’s sobs lessen slightly, and slowly, thankfully, they tapered off until Henry was back to normal. 

“Thanks, Bendy,” Henry said as he let him go. 

“Of course, Henry,” Bendy replied. “I want you to be happy.” 

Henry chuckled wetly. “That’s… That’s a nice change of pace from everyone wanting me dead.” Standing up, he looked around. “We should get going. Buddy… Buddy is waiting.” 

They explored the library a little further, and Bendy noticed a book sticking out of the wall. 

“Over here, Henry,” he said, calling him over. 

Henry pushed the book in, and a light lit up over the door, drawing their attention to it. 

“So that’s how it works,” Henry muttered, though Bendy could tell he didn’t want to. It seemed that not even Henry was exempt from the script. 

Shaking off the script’s control once again, Henry looked down at Bendy. “Tell me if you find any more of those books.” 

A soft smile touched the animator’s lips as he watched Bendy rush off to find the books. Henry, of course, knew exactly where all the books were, but he loved seeing Bendy so excited. It felt like a ray of sunshine in this dark world. 

Bendy climbed up on the desk to push a book in. “I found another one!” he said happily. 

“Good job, Bendy!” Henry said with a smile, patting in between the demon’s horns. “I’ll get the next one.” 

Making sure he was out of sight of Bendy, he braced himself and pushed in the third book. 

Agony hit him straight in the chest, making him crumple to the ground as everything he saw glowed orange, the chandelier spinning and shaking wildly and the cupboard doors slamming open and shut. He couldn’t see the center room from his position, but he didn’t need to know that the cutout was no longer a normal cutout. It was a version of Bendy with human yellow eyes dripping ink holding a sign that read, **_Wandering is a terrible sin._ **

_Yeah, I know how much you hate me fighting the script, Joey,_ Henry thought as he grimaced in pain. _No need to rub it in._

Mercifully, it ended a few seconds later, and the white-hot agony in his chest lessened to a dull throb, allowing Henry to breathe again. 

“H-Henry?” came a small voice from behind him. 

He turned to see Bendy standing there, wide-eyed. Dang it. He hadn’t wanted the toon to see that. 

“Hey, Bendy, it’s okay, I’m okay,” Henry assured him. 

“But… you were screaming…” Bendy mumbled, looking him over for some injury that would have caused him to scream like that. 

He screamed? Henry didn’t remember that. 

“Really, it’s fine. This… This happens every loop,” Henry assured him. “I’m fine, honest.” 

“You sure?” Bendy asked. 

Henry nodded and stood up. “Come on, Bendy. Let’s find those other books.” 

Bendy, still watching Henry in case something was wrong, grudgingly agreed. Keeping close to Henry in case something else went wrong, when something else made him shake in his shoes. “H-Henry?” he stammered, pulling on the animator’s pant leg. 

“Hm?” Henry hummed as he looked down at the demon. Noting the direction Bendy was staring, he turned to see the back of the now-empty stage. “Oh! They left. They usually do. I don’t know why they don’t stick around.” When his gaze reached the bottom of the back of the stage, he had a double-take. 

There on the wall was a painting of a female cat toon in a 1950’s dress, and, judging by her size, she couldn’t be older than ten. Her white-blonde hair went down to her shoulders and silk gloves covered her skin from her four petite fingers on each hand all the way up to her elbows. Her dress flared out in an umbrella-like dome, stopping just above the knee-high socks she wore with the black mary janes on her feet that her tail curled around, the tip looking like it was dipped in ink in a similar way to her ears. The most startling thing about her were her eyes. Though they were piecut, one was your traditional inky eye while the other was magenta and ringed in black, and Henry could have sworn they were watching his every move with a quiet but notable curiosity, almost as if the painting was alive and studying him to try and figure out what he was. It was… unsettling, to say the least. 

“Henry?” Bendy asked nervously. “W-what is it? What do you see?” 

Henry shook his head. It was probably just a fluke, a one-time thing. Still… those eyes seemed to be watching him very carefully… “It’s nothing,” he assured Bendy. “Let’s get the rest of the books, shall we?” 

It only took them a few minutes to find the two remaining books, but when Henry went back to see the stage, the painting was gone. He shivered. Best not to think about that sort of stuff. 

He led Bendy into the next room. Well, it wasn’t much of a room. More like a rickety walkway over a huge chasm that had cages hanging over it. 

“That’s… really deep…” Bendy said nervously as he peeked into the abyss. 

“Watch your step, Bendy,” Henry warned as they started moving forward. “We don’t know what is down there.” 

“Y’all might not, but ah do,” laughed a voice from behind them. “It’s actually quite borin’, ta be honest. Ah don’t recommend ya take a dunk, though. The abyss can be… _deadly…_ ” 

Henry and Bendy spun around, searching for the source, but they couldn’t see anyone. 

“My, jumpy as a hare in a pack of wolves, ain’t ya’ll?” the voice chuckled. “You’d think da devil himself was out to get ya.” 

“Who’s there?” Henry asked, trying to place the voice. He could have sworn he’d heard that southern accent before, but he couldn’t remember where. “Show yourself!” 

“Why? Yer no mayor o’ mine. Yer just an old coot who happened to be in da wrong place at da wrong time.” 

Henry bristled. “I’m not that old!” He looked at Bendy. “Am I?” 

Bendy brushed it off. “Psh. No, you’re not. This girl just ain’t got no class.” 

“Yer one to talk, imp,” the voice snapped. “Ah bet yer tomfoolery could make a bishop mad enough to kick in a stained glass window!” 

“Hey! I’m not that bad!” Bendy objected. “Who even are you, thinking you can insult us and get away with it?”

“Go on, demon,” the voice said coldly. “Threaten me. It’ll go just _dandy_! I’ll even give you a deal and cancel your birth certificate too!” 

“Now, now, let’s not get testy,” Henry said, getting in between the demon and the voice before anything worse could be said. “We’re just passing through. Though I must ask, why are you here in this desolate place? No one else ever stays in this place, not to mention this is the angel’s domain. So why are you here?” 

The voice laughed. “Dis? Dat wannabe excuse for a melting pot of fondue’s territory? Nah, dis place is all mine. Not like anyone else wants it. Not after what that egg-suckin’ dawg Drew did to me here.” 

That was when it clicked. The southern accent, the connection to the chasm, the hatred of Joey Drew, the territory—it all made sense. That voice… It was—

“Cora?” Henry asked. “Is that you?” 

The voice was silent for a moment, and Henry was afraid he might have said something wrong when she finally asked in a quiet tone, “How do ya know dat name?” 

“The recordings,” Henry explained. “There were two of them. One on Level 14 and one in the sewers. In the first one, you said your name was Cora, and that you came here with your sister. Alliyah, I think. Either that or Leah. Your accent makes it hard to tell. And in the second… Drew…” 

“Pushed me into da abyss,” she finished for him. “I drowned, dat day. Ma never could afford dem fancy swimming lessons, heh. Though I doubt dose woulda done me a lick o’ good in dat ‘orrible sea of ink. It’ll take ya, if ya let it.” 

“What…” Henry swallowed. “What happened to you after you… drowned?” 

A figure leaped from the cage onto the path surrounding the abyss, standing up to reveal a female grey-skinned toon with fins instead of ears and gills on her neck, her hair bound in a long black braid down one side and draped over her shoulder. Her large piecut eyes were black and full of a fiery determination, letting the duo know that to challenge her would be fatal. A sort of short-sleeved black wetsuit with scale accents covered her body, making her extremely aerodynamic. Her lower arms and legs had fins on the bottom, and dark scales dotted her body in patches. Webbed paws were in the place where her feet should be, and fangs showed poking out underneath her lips. Although she didn’t seem the type to purposefully make herself look pretty, quite a few pieces of jewelry could be seen on the warrior, including a dark blue sapphire hanging from a choker around her neck that seemed to radiate power. In her four-fingered clawed hand was a silver trident adorned with oceanic and draconic decorations, and Henry had a feeling it was for more than just looks. She might have been in black and white, but Henry could tell she was meant to have color. Lots of color. This faded form of herself… It seemed kinda sad to Henry. 

“ _Dis_ is what he did to me. _Dis_ is what I became,” she snarled. “A freak. A mutant fish lady. And by golly, I intend to return the favor one day. Dat is a promise ah intend to keep.” 

“Do you… Do you know what happened to your sister, Cora?” Henry asked hesitantly. 

“It’s Jet now, and ah do in fact, not that it’s any of your bee’s wax.” 

“Wait… Jet! The Colored One talked about you! You’re her sister!” Bendy said, recognizing the name. 

“You know the Shadow of the Studio?” Jet asked in surprise. “Prove it.” 

Bendy began signing, and Henry vaguely got the meaning. **In our darkest hour, hope will prevail.**

Jet stared at him before signing back, **And when the light returns, with it shall be our freedom.** “By golly, you really are her demon pipsqueak. But then, who is the other one?” 

“The _other one_?” Henry repeated. 

“Occasionally, I’ll see a demon toon poking around these parts, but he doesn’t have a tail and won’t let me see his eyes. I assumed it was my sister’s friend, but if you’re here and look like this, then who could the other one be…?” She trailed off, staring thoughtfully into the chasm beside her as she leaned on her trident. 

After a moment, she spoke again. “Ah have a feeling ya aren’t here to chat, are ya, Bendy?” 

“No, we’re not,” Bendy agreed. “Malice—I mean, Alice Angel took a friend of ours, a perfect Boris named Buddy.” 

“If she got ‘er claws on ‘im, he’s already gone,” Jet said sharply. “Ya might as well give up on ‘im now.” 

“But we don’t know that! He could still be alive!” Bendy protested. 

“You don’t get it, do ya? Do ya know what she does to those she calls _perfect_ , imp?” 

“… No,” Bendy said quietly. “What… What does she do to them?” 

“She tears ‘em apart and uses their body to make ‘erself _perfect_ ,” she snarled. “Believe me, if that _angel_ has your friend, he is as good as _dead_ , maybe even worse than dat.” 

“What could be worse than death?” Bendy asked, confused. 

“Kid, you don’t wanna know,” she said. 

“Would you say that if it was your sister that she took?” Henry asked quickly, looking her in the eye. 

Jet’s expression softened, just a tad. “Ah would do _whatever_ it took to save her,” she said quietly. “Ah would not fail her again.” Then she shook her head, steeling herself once more. “But that won’t never happen, because mah sista’ is more powerful and dangerous than most realize.” 

“But you understand how we feel,” Henry prompted. “You understand why we do this.” 

“Ah do,” she agreed, “but that don’t change the fact that this is a suicide mission. Go on, try to save your precious Boris, but don’t come runnin’ to me when ya fail.” 

“Understood,” Henry said with a nod. 

“We won’t have to, because we’re gonna save him!” Bendy said defiantly. 

Jet chuckled. “Oh, to have the innocence of youth again,” she said softly, longingly, “to think that the world was bright and wonderful again. Oh, how wonderful that would be. Don’t you ever let go of that light, Bendy. It will protect you on your darkest days.” 

“Um… okay?” Bendy agreed, not quite sure what she meant. 

“As for you…” Her gaze strayed to look Henry over, and as her eyes lighted on his features, her determination was replaced by surprise… and a little fear. 

“You shouldn’t be here,” she said quickly, her eyes darting around like a caged animal. “Get out.” 

“What?” Henry asked, confused. “Why? We just got here and we’re still talking—” 

“We are _done_ talking,” she snapped, backing toward the edge of the walkway. “If you won’t leave willingly, then _I’ll_ **_make you_ **!” Her voice grew raspy and growl-like as she did a backflip into the darkness below. 

“Jet!” Henry yelped, rushing to the edge of the platform to see if she was all right, but his worry was quickly replaced by fear as a huge black thing surged out of the chasm. 

He stumbled back, studying the thing with a trained artist’s eye. Let’s see: scales dripping ink, dorsal fin held up high, neck arched, fins flared to either side of the head, reptilian pupils in grey eyes full of hostility, snake-like body, huge fangs, and a jaw big enough to swallow him whole. Yes, he knew what this was, _and_ what it meant. 

**_RUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!_ **

The former animator scooped up the terror-frozen Bendy in his arms, dashing away from what could only be a sea serpent as it snapped its jaws on the open air where they had been standing. He bolted into the corridor with the giant ink pipe and waited, not daring to leave the small hallway until he was sure the serpent was gone. Honestly, why did he have to face _two_ huge scary draconic beasts now that the loop had changed? Why did Joey hate him so?! 

“Oh, what did I ever do to deserve this,” Henry moaned quietly. “What did I do to make you despise me enough to make this my fate, Drew? We used to be best friends! What changed?!” 

“Who are you talking to?” Bendy asked, his fear having faded slightly. 

“No one, Bendy,” Henry sighed. “I’m just talking to myself.” He poked his head out into the room to notice the serpent glaring at him. “Crap. It looks mad at us. Can you understand what it’s saying, Bendy?” 

“I have no idea, because it’s _not saying anything_ ,” Bendy said as he gave him a look. 

“All right, fair enough,” Henry allowed. “Maybe if we continue with the script, it’ll let us pass. We still have to use that lift to get across the chasm to the other side, after all.” 

“Maybe? It doesn’t look like it cares for us either way. It might try to destroy the lift while we’re on it!” Bendy reasoned. 

“That is a chance we’ll have to take,” Henry replied as he headed deeper into the corridor and grabbed a blob of thick ink before heading back to the chasm again. He tried to step out into the open, but the serpent growled, causing him to back up again. 

“Okay, _that_ I understood,” Bendy said. “What is it with giant beasts hating you? 

“Bendy, I need you to do something,” Henry said softly. “I want you to go back to the pipe and grab another blob of thick ink.”

“Why?” Bendy asked. 

“Please, just humor me.” 

Bendy shrugged, going back and grabbing himself a blob of thick ink before returning to Henry. 

“Now, go out to the little machine there—”

“Are you _insane_?! That thing’ll eat me!” Bendy protested, his eyes full of fear and panic.

“No, no, I promise I won’t let it eat you,” Henry assured him. “Just go out to the machine and turn the dial to the little radio, put the ink into the slot, and then pull the lever. When the radio appears, turn it on, okay?” 

Bendy hesitated but slowly nodded, inching out into the cavern. When the serpent didn’t do anything but watch him, he kept going, walking to the little ink maker. He gulped as he began spinning the dial to the correct symbol, feeling the beast’s almost human eyes bore into his back while he worked. He nearly collapsed from relief when the radio popped out of the machine. Quickly fiddling with the knobs, he waited until the static faded out. 

A song from the cartoons started to play on the speakers as he found the right frequency, but confusion flashed across his features as it changed abruptly to something he didn’t recognize, though judging by the hiss of surprise behind him, the serpent knew the intro well. It, no, _she_ began humming along before starting to sing along softly:

_“I been walkin'  
_ _With my face turned to the sun,  
_ _Weight on my shoulders,  
_ _A bullet in my gun.  
_ _Oh, I got eyes in the back of my head  
_ _Just in case I have to run.  
_ _I do what I can when I can while I can for my people  
_ _While the clouds roll back and the stars fill the night!”_

_“That’s when I'm gonna stand up,  
__Take my people with me!  
__Together we are going  
__To a brand new home.  
__Far across the river,  
__Can you hear freedom calling?  
__Calling me to answer.  
__Gonna keep on keepin' on  
__I can feel it in my bones.”_

The serpent began swaying slightly as she sang, causing the ink to fall off her and reveal her true appearance. It didn’t take much to realize that this serpent was somehow Jet in another form once you saw the scales were the same color and the jewelry that matched hers to a tee. It seemed that there was more to the aquatic warrior than met the eye. 

Bendy listened to her voice as she continued on, which was surprisingly beautiful for such a rough form. 

_“Early in the mornin'  
_ _Before the sun begins to shine,  
_ _We're gonna start movin'  
_ _Towards that separating line.  
_ _I'm wadin' through muddy waters.  
_ _You know I got a made up mind,  
_ _And I don't mind if I lose any blood on the way to salvation  
_ _And I'll fight with the strength that I got until I die!_

_“So I'm gonna stand up,  
_ _Take my people with me.  
_ _Together we are going  
_ _To a brand new home!  
_ _Far across the river,  
_ _Can you hear freedom calling?  
_ _Calling me to answer,  
_ _Gonna keep on keepin' on._

_“And I know what's around the bend  
_ _Might be hard to face 'cause I'm alone  
_ _And I just might fail  
_ _But Lord knows I tried,  
_ _Sure as stars fill up the sky._

_“Stand up,  
_ _Take my people with me!  
_ _Together we are going  
_ _To a brand new home!  
_ _Far across the river,  
_ _Can you hear freedom calling?  
_ _Calling me to answer  
_ _Gonna keep on keepin' on._

_“I'm gonna stand up  
_ _Take my people with me!  
_ _Together we are going  
_ _To a brand new home!  
_ _Far across the river,  
_ _Do you hear freedom calling?  
_ _Calling me to answer…  
_ _Gonna keep on keepin' on._

_“I'm gonna stand up,  
_ _Take my people with me!  
_ _Together we are going  
_ _To a brand new home!  
_ _Far across the river,  
_ _I hear freedom calling,  
_ _Calling me to answer!  
_ _Gonna keep on keepin' on.  
_ _I can feel it in my bones._

_“I go to prepare a place for you.  
__I go to prepare a place for you._  
_I go to prepare a place for you.  
__I go to prepare a place for you.”_

While Jet was distracted, Henry started up the lift and got them across, letting out a sigh of relief when they made it to the other side safely. He was about to head into the mineshaft when he heard a rumbling behind him. 

“Wait…” the serpent hissed, causing Henry to slowly turn around and face her. 

“Yes?” he asked shakily, ready to bolt if she showed any signs of aggression. 

“Good luck… saving your Boris… I hope you succeed…” she said softly before diving back into the abyss. 

Henry smiled. “Thank you, Jet,” he whispered kindly to the cavern before turning and continuing onward. 

Things were changing, Henry mused, but perhaps… it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing. 

Maybe it was just what he needed to break the loop once and for all. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well? Was it worth the wait? The next chapter should come soon--don't quote me on that--as I still have one more original character out of this group to introduce and I have ideas for that so stay tuned.   
> I hope you enjoyed these new characters. There was a snippet I wanted to do after this, but I'm going to save it for the end of this loop, when lots of lore things shall be revealed! ^^D  
> See ya!  
> \- Fantasy


	10. Hello, Again. I Really Need To Stop Doing This. It's Getting Repetitive.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Fantasy Sibs have been being dumb-dumbs and not using their coping mechanism of writing to deal with stuff, so they're here to apologize and give you guys... a gift, I guess?

**Hi. Um... Yeah, we really need to do better about this...**

Gee, I couldn't tell. That's definitely not why we're writing this!

**Hardy-har-har. Okay. First off, no, we're not abandoning this. This is Fantasía's baby, and she's not giving up on it.**

That's right! I don't care if I had to drag my sibling into this, we're getting it done. 

**Yeah. Anyway, the anniversary of this AU is in a few days and that kinda spurred us back into action. I mean, have you seen what little we have written on this site?!**

That doesn't reflect our stupid outline, but you guys don't want to read an outline, so... Yeah. Not posting that. 

**Yeah. But we thought you guys deserved something special after the radio silence, so we're... kinda here to give you guys a few options, I guess? I don't know. We're totally up for suggestions.**

We're working on a cover for the AU, so that's something you guys will get in the future, along with another chapter that is WAY overdue and a crossover with a friend's AU on the way.

**But that seems like not enough for you guys, especially after rereading all your comments of support, so we want to give you something more. Especially when you look at the _76_ kudos on this thing. You guys deserve something awesome for that.**

So here are what we came up with for ideas: 

  1. A question session with us about plot and stuff (spoilers inbound ;D).
  2. A Q&A with the characters. 
  3. ... We'll get back to you. 



We're sorry, we're new to this whole social media presence thing and are trying to figure out how this works... '^^D

**So we thought we'd ask you guys. What do YOU GUYS want? Do you guys want a Q &A? Do you want us to post our Ink Demonth drawings on here for you guys to see? Do you want something else? Feel free to tell us what you want. After all, open communication is important. **

**That's... kinda all we've got. Um... See you guys round?**

BYEEEEEEEEEEE! ^^D


End file.
